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NOEL  BUXTON 


WITH    THE    BULGARIAN    STAFF 


r    ' 


DIRECTING    THE    BATTLE    AT    CHATALJA. 

From  left  to  right :  Colonel  Nerezoff  (Chief  of  the  Intelligence  Department),  Colohel 
Jostoff  (Chief  of  General  Diniitrieff's  Staff),  General  Savoff  (Commander-in-Chief), 
General  Dimitrieff  (Commanding  the  combined  Armies  at  the  front). 


WITH  THE 
BULGARIAN  STAFF 


BY 

NOEL-BUXTON,  M.P. 


WITH  ILLUSTRATIONS 


NEW  YORK 

THE    MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

66  FIFTH  AVENUE 
19*3 


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TO   THE   MEMORY   OF 

THOMAS   PALMER   NEWBOULD 

WHO   COUNTED   THE   CAUSE   OF   FREEDOM 

OF   MORE    VALUE   THAN   LIFE 

AND    DIED    FIGHTING 

FOR   THE   BALKAN    ALLIES 

JANUARY    1913 


(Vide  note,  p.  vi.) 


267382 


THE    LATE   MR.   PALMER   NEWBOULD 


Mr.  T.  P.  Newbould  was  killed  while  fighting  in  the 
ranks  of  the  Greek  Army  on  January  ist,  1913. 

The  special  interest  of  Mr.  Newbould's  sacrifice  of  his 
life  lies  in  his  character  as  a  man,  not  only  enthusiastic, 
but  of  the  order-loving  type,  and  immersed  in  prosaic 
business.  Even  in  proposals  of  the  most  quixotic  kind  in 
a  recent  letter  to  me,  he  devoted  several  pages  to  details 
of  organisation  which  the  Byronic  temperament  would 
resent.  This  makes  his  action  all  the  more  noteworthy.  It 
is  not  often  that  a  man  of  any  kind  gives  life  itself  for  an 
altruistic  end.  It  is  still  rarer  for  a  man  of  a  temperament 
specially  sane.  The  act  implies  no  doubt  an  emotional 
instinct  for  dedication,  but  in  a  man  of  this  type  a  great 
deal  more.  He  does  not  risk  the  cessation  of  everything 
visible  and  sensuous  without  balancing  the  pros  and  cons. 
He  decides  quite  deliberately  that  the  advantage  of  proving 
his  belief  in  something  greater  than  the  visible  outweighs 
all  that  can  be  said  for  a  long-continued  life  of  minor 
services.  Everyone  thinks  a  good  object  worth  a  certain 
amount  of  trouble,  if  that  trouble  is  not  too  painful. 
Newbould  held  the  benefit  of  liberation  from  tyranny  to  be 
so  great,  and  the  belief  in  the  unseen  and  the  moral  to  be 
so  important,  that  he  judged  it  worth  while  to  abandon 
altogether  the  sensuous  life. 

Just  before  a  meeting  of  the  Balkan  Committee  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  at  the  outbreak  of  war,  some  of  us 
begged  him  at  least  to  delay  his  departure.  He  consented 
to  reflect,  but  during  the  meeting  of  the  Committee  he 
whispered  that  delay  might  mean  the  intervention  (or  the 
unwelcome  applause)  of  his  friends,  and  he  left  at  once  for 
the  front.  He  wished  to  prove  the  reality  of  his  belief, 
and  he  succeeded. 


PREFACE 

My  connection  with  the  work  of  the 
Balkan  Committee  has  brought  me  the 
friendship  of  many  Balkan  statesmen, 
and  it  was  to  that  connection  that  I 
owed  the  privilege  of  being  attached  to 
the  Bulgarian  General  Staff  at  a  critical 
period  of  the  campaign  in  Thrace,  and  of 
seeing  much  that  was  beyond  the  reach  of 
the  foreign  military  attaches. 

I  am  allowed  to  illustrate  the  point 
by  quoting  the  following  passage  from 
a  letter  recently  received  from  Mr. 
Gueshoff,  the  Bulgarian  Prime  Minister : 
1  The  unceasing  labour  of  the  Balkan 
Committee  to  impress  its  objects  upon 
public  opinion  brought  about  a  change 
in  that  opinion  w7hich  we  most  gratefully 
acknowledge.     The  Committee  was  a  real 

vii 


PREFACE 

prophet  when  it  declared  that  unless 
effective  reforms  were  speedily  carried 
out,  the  bloodshed  and  anarchy,  which 
daily  grew  worse  in  Macedonia,  would 
find  their  climax  in  a  war  between  Turkey 
and  Bulgaria. 

'  The  war  predicted  broke  out.  And 
it  broke  out  in  spite  of  their  and  our 
efforts  to  avert  it,  by  opening  the  eyes 
of  the  Young  Turks  to  the  urgency  of 
inaugurating  a  policy  of  real  reforms. 
Do  you  remember  your  visit  to  Sofia  in 
the  spring  of  191 1  ?  You  were  coming 
from  Constantinople,  where  you  had  spoken 
with  the  Young  Turks.  You  spoke  with 
us  too.  And  we  agreed  that  the  wrisest 
course  for  Bulgaria  was  to  continue  to 
give  a  fair  trial  to  the  new  Turkish  regime. 

'  That  trial  lasted  more  than  four  vears. 
You  and  we  strained  all  our  exertions 
to  persuade  the  Young  Turks  that  Mace- 
donia must  be  pacified,  that  an  end  must 
be  put  to  the  bloodshed  and  anarchy 
which  were  ruining  that  distracted  province. 
All   was   in    vain.     Rampant   lawlessness, 

•  •  • 

vin 


PREFACE 

total  want  of  discipline,  produced  horrors 
which  recalled  those  of  1876  and  1903. 
We  had  the  massacres  of  Ishtib  and 
Kotchane.  The  cup  was  filled  to 
overflowing.  Our  patience  was  exhausted. 
And  having  been  provoked  by  the  Turks, 
we  mobilised. 

'  The  definitive  results  of  the  war 
which  ensued  and  which  is  still  raging, 
cannot  be  foreseen.  The  after-pains  suc- 
ceeding the  birth  of  the  new  order  which 
is  evolving  out  of  disorder  in  the  Balkan 
Peninsula  may  last  some  time  yet.  But 
one  thing  is  certain.  The  fons  et  origo 
of  the  anarchy  and  bloodshed  will  be 
removed.  The  grave  responsibilities  in- 
curred by  Great  Britain  in  1878  at  the 
Congress  of  Berlin,  when  she  secured  the 
restoration  of  Macedonia  to  the  rule  of 
the  Turk,  will  harass  no  longer  the  con- 
science of  England.  The  area  of  massacre 
and  outrage  in  South-Eastern  Europe  will 
disappear.  And  as  those  were  the  objects 
of  the  Balkan  Committee,  it  must  be 
congratulated  upon  having  achieved  what 

ix 


PREFACE 

few  other  political  societies  have  been 
able  to  achieve — upon  having  attained 
its  objects  within  the  short  space  of  nine 

years.' 

It  was  the  work  of  the  Balkan  Com- 
mittee again  which  was  referred  to  in  a 
letter  addressed  to  me  by  General  Savoff 
at  the  close  of  my  visit.  '  It  was  our 
duty  to  give  you,  so  far  as  the  interests 
of  war  permitted,  the  possibility  of  wit- 
nessing the  realisation  of  an  idea  to  which 
you  were  attached/ 

I  should  indeed  be  ungrateful  if  I  did 
not  acknowledge  to  Mr.  Gueshoff  and  to 
General  Savoff  and  his  staff  the  obligations 
I  am  under  to  them,  not  onlv  for  their 
unfailing  kindness,  but  for  the  opportunity 
of  a  unique  experience. 

In  a  previous  book,  '  Europe  and  the 
Turks/  I  have  discussed  some  political 
aspects  of  Balkan  affairs.  In  the  present 
case  I  have  endeavoured  to  write  not  as 
one  concerned  with  the  future  of  the 
Balkan  peoples  (a  future  which  is  now 
happily  in  their  own  hands),  but  from  the 

x 


PREFACE 

point  of  view  of  any  politician,  who, 
having  the  uncommon  opportunity  of  seeing 
1  the  great  game '  of  war,  is  in  a  posi- 
tion to  feel  its  absorbing  interest  and  to 
estimate  its  value. 

I  desire  to  thank  the  Editors  of  the 
Contemporary  Review  and  the  Nineteenth 
Century  and  After  for  their  kind  permission 
to  reprint  two  articles  previously  published 
by  them. 

I  am  specially  indebted  to  Mr. 
Tchaprachikoff,  Private  Secretary  to  King 
Ferdinand,  for  his  generous  permission 
to  publish  photographs  taken  by  him 
at  the  front. 

My  particular  gratitude  is  due  to  Mr. 
J.  H.  Whitehouse,  M.P.,  for  assistance 
afforded  me  in  many  ways— assistance 
without  which  this  volume  would  not 
have  been  written. 

NOEL  BUXTON. 

House  of  Commons, 
March,  19 13. 


CONTENTS 


I— THE   GAIN 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    Liberation 1 


II.— THE  PRICE 

II.  The    Battlefields   ....      24 

III.  The  Wounded 48 

IV.  Devastation 77 

V.  The  Home  Country.   .   .   .107 

III.— EPILOGUE 

VI.    The  War  and  the  Powers     .        .122 
VII.    Why  the  Bulgarians  Won    .        .136 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Directing  the  Battle  at  Chatalja       Frontispiece 

Military  Attaches  (Colonel  Lyon, 
British  Military  Attache,  is  fourth  from 
the  left) To  face  p.     2 

Convoy  crossing  the  Arda  River  by 
Bridge  of  Pontoons  ....  ,,  12 

Captured  Turkish  Guns  at  Kirklisse  „  14 

General  Savoff  at  a  Field  Tele- 
phone Station ,,  20 

Macedonian  Peasants  enrolled  in 
the  Bulgarian  Army         ...  „  22 

In  a  Trench  while  under  Fire  at 
Chatalja ,,  26 

Bulgarian  Creusot  Gun  and  Em- 
placement     „  30 

A  Bulgarian  Burial  Party  ...  „  34 

The  only  Railway  Bridge  destroyed 

by  the  Retreating  Turks         .  „  38 

Turkish  Railway  Carriage  in  which 

the  Armistice  was  Signed        .  „  44 

XV 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Shelter  from  Shell  Fire  .        .        .To  face 

General     Nazlamoff      at      Cavalry 
Headquarters  at  Chorlu 

Russian  Red  Cross  Contingent 


Underground  Shelter  for  Besieging 
Troops 

Awaiting  Amputation  . 

Greek  Peasant  Women  wounded  by 
Turkish  Troops  .... 

The  Burnt  Church  at  Alapli    . 

Bulgarian  Amateur  Nurses 

General  Savoff  and  Nazim  Pasha  at 
the  Chatalja  Conference.  (One  of 
the  last  photographs  of  Nazim  Pasha 
before  his  assassination.) 

Generals  Savoff  and  Ficheff  and 
Nazim  Pasha  at  the  Negotiations 
for  an  Armistice       .... 

In  the  Old  Fort  at  Kirklisse  . 


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55 


p.  44 

46 
50 

66 
68 

104 
104 
112 


55 


55 


55 


134 

150 
152 


XVI 


WITH   THE 

BULGARIAN    STAFF 

I.— TEE  GAIN 
CHAPTER  I 

LIBERATION 

Within  eighteen  days  of  the  outbreak  of 
war  the  Bulgarian  headquarters  moved 
from  Stara  Zagora  toward  the  Turkish 
frontier.  Motors  were  available  as  far 
as  Kizil  Agach,  and  there,  by  special 
favour  of  the  Prime  Minister  and  General 
Savoff,  my  brother  and  I  became  attached 
to  the  staff — a  stroke  of  good  fortune  on 
which  we  could  not  wish  to  improve.  On 
Friday,  November  8  (1912),  before  dawn, 
we  found  excellent  horses  at  the  door  of  the 

1  B 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

peasant's  hut  which  had  sheltered  us.  The 
baggage  was  to  follow  in  carts,  and  for 
three  days  we  saw  it  no  more.  We  set  off 
across  the  open  country,  following  the  route 
taken  by  the  first  army  on  October  18. 
Two  squadrons  of  cavalry  formed  our 
escort.  In  front  of  them  rode  the  junior 
officers  of  the  staff  departments  ;  further 
to  the  front  the  heads  of  sections — carto- 
graphy, translation,  intelligence ;  General 
Tsenoff  representing  the  gunners,  General 
Yankoff  the  sappers  ;  finally,  at  a  distance 
which  other  generals  tacitly  respected, 
Ficheff,  chief  of  the  Staff,  and  Savoff 
himself,  distinguished  from  other  generals 
by  no  difference  of  dress  or  accoutrement, 
but  marked  by  a  certain  air  of  mental 
force  as  much  by  the  shoulders  as  by 
the  face. 

The  moment  which  a  downtrodden 
race  had  so  long  awaited  was  come.  A 
determined  but  patient  people  had  found 
its  vindication.  Here  were  the  leaders 
of  the  liberation,  laying  firm  claim  to 
the    fatherland.     Bulgarian    feeling    runs 

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LIBERATION 

deep,  so  deep  that  some  think  it  non- 
existent. So  thrilling,  at  all  events,  was 
this  dramatic  entry  that  the  most  ex- 
pressive would  have  felt  constrained  to 
hide  his  emotion. 

At  about  three  o'clock  we  crossed 
the  frontier  line.  It  is  marked  by  a 
cutting  through  the  oak  scrub  along  the 
ridge  of  the  rolling  hills.  One  would 
have  supposed  from  the  silence  of  the 
officers  that  they  had  not  noticed  the 
fact.  The  troopers,  however,  went  so  far 
as  to  betray  an  interest  in  their  entry 
on  the  promised  land.  They  asked  the 
squadron  officers  if  they  might  raise  a 
hurrah.  The  captain  sternly  refused, 
telling  them  that  General  Savoff  would 
not  like  it. 

Within  half  an  hour  we  came  on  a 
burnt  village.  Nothing  remained  alive, 
except  the  dogs  and  a  few  lean  cats. 
Human  bodies  formed  their  food,  but 
grey  crows  were  hungry  competitors.  The 
next  village  was  still  burning,  and  we 
stopped  to  explore.     Not  a  soul  remained. 

3  b  2 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

Rejoining  the  Staff,  we  found  them  be- 
traying more  interest  than  had  been 
observable  before.  They  had  already 
come  upon  the  first  trenches  which  they 
had  yet  seen.  Here  the  First  Army  had 
fought  its  way,  heading  south-east  towards 
Kirklisse,  while  the  Third  Army,  on 
its  left,  had  descended  from  the  north. 
There  were  big  graves,  both  of  Bulgarians 
and  Turks.  Then  came  another  deserted 
village  ;  from  here  it  was  reported  that 
the  Turks  had  carried  off  twenty-five 
Bulgarian  girls  before  their  retreat. 

On  the  crest  of  the  next  ridge  we 
suddenly  came  to  a  point  overlooking  the 
immense  plain  of  Adrianople.  The  sound 
of  the  cannonade,  audible  since  morning, 
now  grew  near  and  insistent.  It  resembled 
nothing  so  much  as  a  groan  or  growl, 
gigantic  as  the  voice  of  a  whole  nation. 
Shrapnel  was  bursting  over  the  forts  with 
the  effect  of  a  sky-rocket  when  the  stars 
are  discharged  and  drift  with  an  air  of 
serene  calm.  Following  the  explosion,  in 
the  steady  breeze  that   was  blowing,   the 

4 


LIBERATION 

compact  body  of  white  smoke  floated 
slowly  through  the  cloudless  air  like  a 
balloon. 

We  passed  the  great  feudal  farm  of  a 
Turkish  bey.  He  had  tried  to  protect 
the  villagers.  There  was  a  great  readiness 
to  speak  well  of  a  Turk  where  he  deserved 
it.  Bullocks  and  buffaloes,  pulling  guns, 
had  fallen  dead  here.  Dogs  had  torn  off 
the  skin,  and  gnawed  the  succulent  muscles 
next  the  spine.  The  flayed  and  swollen 
carcases  were  conspicuous  on  the  brown 
land,  lurid  with  various  shades  of  purple, 
yellow,  and  red. 

The  fighting  here,  in  the  first  week  of 
the  war,  caused  the  panic  at  Kirklisse. 
It  was  the  decisive  battle,  but  it  was 
never  reported  by  the  Government.  In 
London  its  very  name  is  unknown.  When 
I  remarked  on  this,  General  Ficheff  replied, 
1  Why  should  we  report  it  ?  We  did  not 
want  to  advertise  ;  we  wanted  to  work/ 

We  arrived  in  total  darkness  in  the 
muddy  lanes  of  Tatarla,  where  was  a 
halting-place     for     the     field     hospitals. 

5 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

We  were  thankful,  after  ten  hours'  riding, 
to  find  that  one  of  them  could  be  spared 
for  ourselves.  Several  straw  palliasses 
provided  a  rest  for  their  owners,  even 
before  supper  was  ready.  The  night  was 
dark,  but  the  flashlights  of  the  besieged  in 
Adrianople  continually  lit  up  the  sky. 
Turned  hastily  from  one  quarter  to  another, 
they  irresistibly  suggested  a  bad  fit  of 
nerves  in  the  garrison  ;  at  other  times, 
moving  continually  round  all  quarters  of 
the  compass  and  lighting  up  the  clouds, 
they  resembled  the  intermittent  flash  of 
a  lighthouse.  At  night  the  cannonade  was 
unusually  well  sustained,  and  those  were 
sound  sleepers  for  whom  it  did  not  spoil 
a  night's  rest. 

At  Tatarla  there  was  no  question  of 
shaving  or  washing,  but  before  starting 
in  the  morning  there  was  the  luxury  of 
a  glass  of  tea  with  bread  and  cheese, 
laid  out  on  a  field-hospital  table  outside 
the  tent. 

Knowing  that  the  Staff  would  not  ride 


LIBERATION 

very  fast,  we  stopped  behind  to  look  at 
the  field  hospitals,  and  talk  to  the  wounded. 
The  whole  stream  of  wounded  from  Lule 
Burgas  had  to  be  brought  by  this  route 
into  Bulgaria,  before  they  could  receive 
anything  better  than  the  first  aid  given  at 
the  front.  It  was  almost  incredible  that 
the  outgoing  transport  of  ammunition  and 
food  should  entirely  pass  by  mud  tracks 
through  wooded  hills,  a  journey  of  six 
days  from  Stara  Zagora  to  Kirklisse.  It 
was  still  more  astounding  that  the  wounded 
should  survive  this  journey,  and  that  many 
very  severe  cases  were  successfully  treated 
in  Bulgaria  at  the  end  of  it.  The  foreign 
Red  Cross  missions  which  later  on  came  to 
Kirklisse  found  the  hardships  of  sleeping 
out  in  their  waggons  quite  sufficiently 
severe.  There  were  as  a  rule  two  to  occupy 
each  waggon.  At  first  there  was  adequate 
straw  or  hay  to  relieve  the  shoulders  and 
hips,  and  to  somewhat  increase  the  width 
of  the  waggon,  which  broadens  out  upwards 
from  a  narrow  base  ;  but  as  the  oxen 
consumed  the  straw  the  bedding  became 

7 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

worse  and  worse,  till  finally  there  were 
only  the  narrow  planks,  some  two  feet 
wide,  on  which  to  rest.  It  was  sufficiently 
surprising  that  even  the  English  ladies  of 
the  Women's  Convoy  Corps  survived  this 
experience  without  breakdown  ;  all  the 
more  was  it  harrowing  to  think  of  the 
men  with  broken  bones  and  important 
organs  lacerated,  jolting  for  six,  and  even 
eight,  days  in  these  springless  ox-carts,  with 
bitter  frost  at  night,  and  with  no  covering 
but  the  wicker  hood. 

The  military  telegraph  office  at  Tatarla 
undertook  to  send  for  me  the  following 
despatch  : 

1  Adrianople  not  having  fallen,  the 
wounded  must  cross  mountains.  Many 
days  jolting  in  springless  carts.  Bitter 
frost.  Wounded  stop  here  in  transport 
hospital ;  some  mutilated.  Equipment 
badly   wanted/ 

Such  were  the  melancholy  facts.  In 
many     cases     mutilation     of    the     most 

8 


LIBERATION 

disgusting  kind  had  taken  place  when  fight- 
ing shifted  from  one  area  to  another,  and 
Bulgarian  soldiers  fell  into  the  hands  of 
Turks.  Mercifully  there  were  not  many 
mutilated  who  remained  alive;  but  some 
such  cases  actually  lived,  and  had  passed 
through  this  hospital.  One  man  survived, 
but  without  ears.    The  story  was  as  follows  : 

Two  men  were  left  wounded  together 
when  the  Turkish  troops  advanced.  There 
was  a  considerable  pause  at  this  stage,  and 
the  two  men  were  carried  into  a  house 
where  the  Turks,  with  their  usual  want  of 
logic,  interested  themselves  in  mutilation 
rather  than  in  watching  the  enemy.  Both 
had  the  presence  of  mind  to  remember  that 
their  only  chance  of  life  was  to  feign  death. 
The  first  had  sufficient  endurance  to  remain 
passive  as  the  knife  severed  his  ear.  The 
Turk  thinking  him  dead  passed  on  to  the 
other.  This  one  could  not  restrain  a 
groan,  and  was  immediately  stabbed. 

The  commonest  mutilation  was  the 
gouging  out  of  eyes;  but  the  Turks  went 
further,  so  that  death  happily  supervened. 

9 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

Their  other  practices,  which  cannot  be 
detailed,  meant  death  (the  doctors  told  me) 
in  two  or  three  hours.  I  see  no  reason  to 
doubt  their  occurrence,  having  witnessed 
what  is  much  worse — women  and  girls 
mutilated  by  Turkish  regulars. 

The  officer  in  charge  of  this  hospital 
proved  to  be,  like  most  others,  a  civilian 
turned  soldier  for  the  time.  He  was  a 
lawyer,  and  also  a  well-known  caricaturist 
of  the  Sofia  press,  and  had  many  friends 
amongst  the  officers  of  the  Staff.  He  was 
also  an  amateur  photographer,  and  in  the 
inadequate  light  of  the  early  morning  a 
group  was  taken  with  Savoff  in  the  centre. 
The  caricaturist  was  an  agreeable  illustra- 
tion of  the  fact  that  the  army  was  a  nation 
in  arms.  A  little  later  I  was  hailed  by 
another  Red  Cross  officer  whom  I  had  met 
in  London.  He  had  been  secretary  to  the 
Bulgarian  Legation,  and  was  now  seconded 
from  diplomacy.  At  the  same  time  the 
officer  personally  attached  to  me  was  a 
well-known  owner  of  flour  mills,  and  also  a 
concessionnaire  of  the  pine  forest  at  Rilo. 

10 


LIBERATION 

Riding  out  of  Tatarla  we  passed  a 
transport  convoy  of  record  length.  These 
convoys  are  the  great  feature  of  a  transport 
route  in  the  Balkans,  as  they  would  be  in  a 
war  in  India.  There  is  not  a  farm  in  the 
combatant  countries  which  has  not  sent 
its  waggon  and  oxen  to  the  front.  These 
waggons  are  all  of  the  same  t}^pe — built 
almost  entirely  without  metal,  without 
springs,  with  wicker  hood,  mostly  drawn 
by  two  grey  bullocks,  but  sometimes  by 
the  even  more  complacent  buffalo  with  his 
long  tilted  nose  and  his  white  eyes  con- 
tentedly fixed  on  the  sky.  The  pace  is 
so  slow  that  in  the  distance  a  convoy  hardly 
appeared  to  move.  It  stretched  across 
the  valley  before  one  and  up  the  op- 
posite hill,  disappearing  out  of  sight 
over  the  ridge  like  a  vast  and  almost 
motionless  snake.  Such  a  convoy  seemed 
symbolic  of  the  stolid  but  irresistible  mind 
of  the  people.  The  simple  construction  of 
the  waggons  and  the  very  slowness  of  the 
beasts  constitute  a  security  against  break- 
down.    The  patience  and  endurance  of  the 

ii 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

oxen  and  of  their  drivers,  who  were  com- 
monly Turks  from  Bulgaria,  were  only 
harmonious  with  the  unlimited  number  of 
waggons  at  the  service  of  the  State.  At 
300  yards  the  convoy  looks  like  a  suc- 
cession of  tortoises.  Sometimes,  as  in 
this  case  at  Tatarla,  the  same  convoy 
whose  rear  one  is  passing  may  be  con- 
tinuous even  for  several  miles.  Though  it 
disappears  below  the  summit  a  mile  off, 
it  is  the  same  entity  which  one  can  dimly 
perceive  mounting  the  next  ridge  or  the 
next  after  that.  There  is  a  sense  that, 
however  slow  and  however  distant  the 
goal,  the  convoy  and  the  Bulgarian  race 
will  arrive. 

It  was  less  inspiring  to  meet  the 
returning  convoys.  Riding  close  beside 
the  waggons,  one  could  see  the  feet  of 
a  wounded  man  swathed  in  the  native 
fashion  which  he  refuses  to  discard  in  favour 
of  boots,  and  sometimes  a  pale  and  stolid 
face  indicated  the  degree  of  endurance 
that  was  required  to  pass  through  the 
ordeal  of  this  journey. 

12 


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LIBERATION 

At  mid-day  we  came  to  Yenije,  on 
the  main  road  from  Adrianople  to  Kirk- 
lisse.  We  stopped  here  for  lunch,  and 
some  of  the  older  generals  went  on  in 
motors.  I  had  passed  through  Yenije 
after  the  insurrection  of  1903,  when  the 
massacres  had  just  taken  place.  The  dead 
had  been  hurriedly  buried.  There  is  a 
wide  sandy  river,  mostly  bare,  except 
in  time  of  flood,  and  crossed  by  a  long 
wooden  bridge.  The  sandy  bed  is  a  con- 
venient burial  place.  The  bed  of  the  river 
now  served  for  interment  of  a  different 
kind  to  that  of  1903.  At  intervals,  as 
we  crossed  the  bridge,  I  saw  the  hoofs 
of  a  horse  emerging  from  the  sand  where 
it  had  been  hurriedly  buried.  Its  position 
was  thus  conveniently  marked,  to  avoid 
the  labour  of  digging  a  second  grave 
where  the  ground  was  already  occupied. 
Little  did  I  expect  to  see  the  open  green 
of  Yenije,  where,  nine  years  before,  the 
surviving  inhabitants  slunk  out  of  sight 
in  terror,  now  occupied  by  a  concourse 
of  Christian  troops.     To-day  a  Bulgarian 

13 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

trooper  holds  my  horse  while  I  lunch,  where 
formerly  I  had  begged  the  loan  of  a  pony 
from  a  Turkish  cavalryman. 

*  Our  surroundings  now  became  doubly 
interesting.  Our  route  was  one  of  the 
few  real  roads  in  Turkey,  and  the  Turks 
had  considerately  furnished  it  with  a 
supply  of  excellent  stone  in  readiness 
for  remaking.  This  stone  had  been  placed 
in  long  heaps  at  the  side  of  the  road, 
and  constituted  a  ready-made  trench  for 
the  fight  which  had  preceded  the  fall 
of  Kirklisse. 

For  several  miles  the  south  side  of 
the  road  was  lined  with  abandoned  gun- 
carriages,  dead  horses,  and  here  and  there 
a  corpse.  One,  half-buried  in  mud,  was 
gashed  in  many  places  about  the  head. 
The  Turks  failed  to  hold  the  line  of  the 
road  and  fled  south  across  open  country. 
The  soil  here  is  heavv,  and  as  it  was 
wet  weather  some  of  the  ruts  made  by 
the  guns  were  at  least  eighteen  inches 
deep.  When  the  guns  stuck  fast  the 
men   cut   loose   enough   horses   for  them- 

14 


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LIBERATION 

selves,  threw  away  the  firing-piece  of 
the  gun,  shot  the  remaining  horses,  and 
rode  away.  There  were  commonly  three 
carcases  lying  together,  and  dogs  from 
the  burned  villages  were  then  living  on 
their  half -putrid  flesh.  Broken  carts  lay 
in  every  direction.  The  ground  was 
strewn  with  rifle  cartridge,  shrapnel,  and 
heavy  shell  abandoned  in  the  flight. 
Beyond  Kirklisse,  towards  Bunarhissar, 
the  banks  by  the  road  were  in  some  places 
almost  lined  with  unused  shrapnel.  The 
flight  had  been  so  hasty  that  streams 
of  waggons  and  gun-carriages  spread  out 
by  various  tracks  on  each  side  of  the 
road.  Whole  boxes  of  ammunition  were 
continually  thrown  overboard,  in  the 
frantic  endeavour  to  get  the  waggons 
through  the  mud.  I  must  have  seen  at 
least  thirty  thousand  unused  gun-cartridges 
in  a  three  hours'  ride. 

It  was  a  thrilling  experience  for  one 
who  had  visited  Kirklisse  in  b}^gone  years 
to  enter  it  now  with  the  victors. 

15 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

Bulgarian  reserve  is  attractive,  but 
at  the  entry  into  Kirklisse  it  seemed 
excessive.  It  marked  the  climax  of 
Bulgarian  reticence  when  Savon0,  avoiding 
all  demonstration,  hurried  to  Kirklisse  in 
a  closed  car.  Every  house  had  hung  out 
a  flag,  and  the  people  crowded  to  their 
doors ;  but  the  whole  Staff  hastened,  without 
apparent  attention,  up  the  steep,  cobbled 
road,  and  dismounting  at  the  Turkish 
Officers'  Club  betook  ourselves  to  examining 
Turkish  maps.  The  officers  were  chiefly 
concerned  to  find  that  the  Turkish  boundary 
was  drawn  to  include  Bulgaria. 

In  another  hour  a  frugal  supper  was 
served  in  the  very  room  from  which 
Mahmud  Mukhtar  had  fled  in  such  haste 
that  his  Turkish  sweetmeats  were  left 
behind.  No  notice  was  taken  of  the 
momentous  significance  of  that  repast ; 
from  generals  to  lieutenants  the  officers 
seemed  embarrassed  by  any  allusion 
to  it. 

The  superficial  appearance  of  the 
town,  which  I  had  visited  in  the  Turkish 

16 


LIBERATION 

epoch  (escorted  and  hampered  by  Turkish 
soldiers  and  officials)  was  by  itself  sufficient 
to  indicate  the  liberation  that  had  taken 
place.  Every  man  had  discarded  with 
delight  the  red  badge  of  servitude  and 
adopted  a  European  hat.  A  well-known 
Christian,  who  had  been  a  member  of 
the  Turkish  court  of  appeal,  apologised 
suddenly,  while  talking  to  me,  for  wearing 
his  hat.  He  had  forgotten,  he  said, 
that  it  was  a  hat  and  not  the  irremov- 
able fez. 

The  streets  wore  quite  a  changed  aspect 
in  another  way.  They  had  never  before 
been  full  of  women  and  girls.  One  could 
not  forget  that  for  every  good-looking 
Christian  woman,  thanksgiving  was  due 
for   the   present   freedom   from   danger. 

It  was  not  only  happiness  but  virtue 
which  suffered  from  Turkish  rule  ;  and  this 
becomes  more  than  ever  evident  when  the 
Christians  are  free  to  show  themselves  and 
express  their  views.  The  licentious  habits 
of  the  Turks,  which  always  degraded 
the  general  standard   in  regard  to  purity, 

17  c 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

meant  at  war  time  the  rape  and  disap- 
pearance of  girls  on  an  unprecedented 
scale. 

The  contrast  with  the  old  regime  came 
home  to  us  in  the  little  town  of  Iskip,  a 
noted  centre  of  Greek  education.  Riding 
through  it  with  a  Bulgarian  officer,  and 
stopping  to  look  at  the  church,  we  were 
soon  surrounded  by  half  the  notables  and 
population  of  the  town.  Several  spoke 
French,  and  two,  having  been  in  America, 
had  a  smattering  of  English.  They  carried 
us  off  to  the  new  club,  which  had  been  the 
first  result  of  the  liberation.  Though  the 
tide  of  war  had  not  passed,  and  no  civil 
government  had  been  established,  they 
had  installed  themselves,  established  a 
library  of  books  (previously  concealed), 
and  were  delighted  to  entertain  us  in  the 
reading-room,  where  a  show  of  civilisation 
was  already  made  by  some  Greek  news- 
papers of  ancient  date. 

Acts  of  revenge  upon  the  Turks  seemed, 
in  the  towns  which  we  visited,  singularly 
few.     At    Lule    Burgas    one  ruin  is  con- 

18 


LIBERATION 

spicuous.  It  is  the  charred  remains  of  the 
house  of  a  notorious  scoundrel  who,  under 
the  protection  of  the  governor,  carried  on 
robbery  and  rape  after  the  fashion  of  the 
notorious  Fehim  Pasha,  whose  atrocities 
led  the  European  embassies  some  years 
ago  to  demand  his  banishment  from  Con- 
stantinople. If  revenge  had  been  more 
brutal,  the  mutilations,  burnings,  massacres, 
and  woundings,  which  in  the  past  have 
disgraced  the  Turkish  empire,  would  have 
formed  an  excuse.  It  has  been  for  years 
past  an  unpleasant  duty  to  drag  them  into 
public  notice  in  order  to  draw  the  necessary 
political  conclusion.  It  is  one  of  the  chief 
sources  of  satisfaction  to-day  that  the  time 
is  approaching  when  they  may  be  forgotten. 

The  rooms  of  the  Turkish  club  were 
at  once  turned  to  account  as  offices. 
Connecting  them  was  a  large  upper  hall, 
and  here  some  forty  officers  sat  down 
to  supper,  Savoff  and  Ficheff  presiding 
together.  There  is  a  massive  quality 
about    Savoff     which    defies    description: 

19  c  2 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

the  head  large ;  the  figure  not  dispro- 
portionate, and  yet  a  short  man  ;  genial, 
yet  apart,  with  an  air  of  large  con- 
descension ;  potentially  social,  but  pre- 
occupied :  a  man  to  inspire  confidence. 
He  reminded  me  of  nothing  so  much 
as  that  rare  type  of  Englishman,  born  a 
squire  but  by  nature  a  leader  of  men, 
occupied  with  great  affairs,  but  when  at 
home  joining  the  crowd  of  common- 
place people,  shooting  or  hunting  or  golf- 
ing, without  claiming  special  regard. 

Ficheff's  bright  eyes  conceal  a  reserve 
impenetrable  even  for  a  Bulgar  ;  but  on 
one  subject  he  opens  out — the  wrongs 
of  a  people  worthy  of  freedom,  the  five 
centuries  of  suffering,  the  deserted  land. 
The  outwitting  of  the  Turks  delighted 
him ;  the  superb  quality  of  the  army 
surprised  even  him.  There  was  news  that 
night.  The  holy  war  had  been  declared. 
The  green  flag  waved  at  Chatalja.  For 
once  the  stir  of  feeling  found  expression. 

We  sat  smoking  late,  enjoying  the 
thought  of  liberation.     The  Balkan  mother 

20 


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LIBERATION 

would  sing  to  her  child  in  peace  ;  and 
girls  would  be  merry  without  fear.  The 
blight  that  had  lain  on  the  Balkan  lands 
was  healed,  the  fog  dispelled.  Even  the 
prestige  of  military  despotism  was  gone 
like  a  pricked  bubble.  The  tyranny  that 
rested  on  delusion  and  not  on  power  was 
vanished  like  an  empty  nightmare  that 
fades  when  the  sleeper  wakes.  The  estab- 
lishment of  Europe's  freedom  was  fulfilled  ; 
the  final  step  taken.  A  great  and  notable 
nation  had  obtained  recognition  through 
the  war.  Its  persistence,  its  purpose,  its 
deep  reserve,  now  stood  revealed,  added  to 
the  world's  stores  of  national  character. 

For  centuries  the  Bulgarian  refused 
to  compromise  with  the  Turk.  Other 
nations  sought  to  lighten  the  weight  of 
the  yoke  by  taking  service  with  the 
tyrant  or  bowing  the  head.  The  maxim 
'  The  sword  never  strikes  when  the  head 
is  bowed  '  undermined  the  soul  of  other 
nations,  never  of  this.  Influence  and 
wealth  went  to  others  ;  all  seemed  lost 
by    the    policy    of    defiance.     Bulgarians 

21 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

would  not  balance  advantages.  A  kind 
of  faith  made  them  ready  to  pay  even 
death  for  ultimate  gain.  The  spirit  wins 
at  last  ;  and  the  indomitable  spirit  of  the 
Bulgars  has  come  by  its  just  reward. 

Here  was  a  chance  to  realise  the 
glory  of  war,  to  view  it  as  a  blessing. 
All  the  sense  of  common  aim,  of  national 
unity,  of  readiness  to  die  for  others, 
of  mighty  movements  and  forces,  thrilled 
together  in  the  blood.  Here  was  a  dis- 
play of  superiority  to  matter  that  might 
well  fill  a  crudely  puritan  mind  with  deep 
religious  idealism.  Here  was  a  healthy 
military  world  in  which  everyone  worked 
hard,  and  each  filled  his  appropriate 
place  ;  where  drones,  fops,  wasters  could 
not  exist ;  where  rewards  and  comforts 
were  appropriate  to  deserts.  Here  in  a 
healthy,  frugal,  outdoor  life  the  primi- 
tive instincts  of  the  struggling  race  of 
men  swept  aside  all  feeling  buz  that  of 
energy  and  well-being,  and  inspired  an 
unreasoning  conviction  that  war  is  good. 

22 


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LIBERATION 

And  out  there,  under  the  frosty  sky, 
lay  the  battered  corpses,  trodden  on, 
rolled  in  the  mud  ;  viewed  in  times  of 
peace  by  men  in  their  senses  with  rever- 
ence unfeigned,  and  now  regarded  with 
much  less  respect  than  a  dead  rat  by  an 
English  roadside. 


23 


II. —THE  PRICE 
CHAPTER  II 

THE  BATTLE-FIELDS 

A  few  days  after  the  great  battle,  and 
before  the  trenches,  the  debris,  or  even 
the  dead  had  disappeared,  we  obtained 
facilities  for  riding  over  the  field.  For 
fifty  miles  south  and  east  of  Kirklisse  the 
country  is  uniform  to  a  degree  which  I  have 
never  seen  elsewhere.  It  is  a  vast  slope 
of  clav  soil  cut  bv  rainfall  into  curiously 
parallel  and  uniform  valleys  and  rivers, 
running  north  and  south.  One  of  the 
deepest  of  these  valleys  holds  at  its  lower 
end,  where  the  little  river  debouches  on  the 
plain,  the  town  of  Lule  Burgas.  It  was  the 
slope  overlooking  the  river  toward  the  west 
which  was  chosen  by  Abdullah  Pasha  for 

24 


THE  BATTLE-FIELDS 

the  battle.  It  was  an  unrivalled  defensive 
ground,  some  twenty-five  miles  long,  but  it 
involved  leaving  the  town  of  Lule  Burgas 
in  front  of  the  lines.  At  the  south  end, 
therefore,  the  line  of  defence  was  broken, 
so  as  to  protect  the  town,  by  placing  troops 
on  the  ridge  beyond  it.  This  section 
formed  an  isolated  outpost  to  the  west  of  the 
valley.  It  was  worth  holding  to  avoid  the 
abandoning  of  the  town,  but  also  because, 
as  an  attack  position  for  the  Bulgars,  it 
would  be  of  priceless  value,  sloping  steeply 
towards  the  east,  commanding  the  valley 
and  an  immense  area,  including  the  railway 
station  four  miles  further  south. 

Here  on  the  ridge  were  the  most  interest- 
ing remains  of  the  fight.  The  sight  of  trenches 
is  always  thrilling  ;  they  are  the  very 
framework  of  momentous  human  efforts, 
and  of  actions  in  which  the  play  of  thought 
or  nerve  or  courage  changes  the  course 
of  human  history.  The  scene  on  these 
ridges  was  peculiarly  suggestive.  There 
were  Turkish  trenches  looking  west,  mixed 
with  Bulgar    trenches  looking   east ;    the 

25 


WITH  THE   BULGARIAN  STAFF 

same  ridge  had  served  to  defend  Asiatic 
government  and  to  advance  European 
ideals.  The  two  were  symbolised  in  the 
very  digging  of  the  trench.  First  had 
come  the  Turks,  and  in  careless  fashion 
dug  slight  holes,  sometimes  joined  together 
so  as  to  justify  the  name  of  trench,  but 
sometimes  mere  isolated  depressions,  with 
the  soil  actually  thrown  all  round  the  hole, 
as  if  the  digger  had  begun  to  plant  a  tree. 
Often  we  found  semi-circular  trenches  form- 
ing a  kind  of  miniature  fortress.  I  have 
met  no  one  who  could  explain  the  object 
that  the  diggers  of  these  may  have  thought 
they  had  in  view.  Certainly  many  of  the 
men  must  have  had  the  vaguest  idea  of 
the  purpose  for  which  they  dug.  The 
poor  redif's  work  was  typical.  I  have 
been  assured  by  Europeans  on  the  Turkish 
side  that  men  in  the  reserves  were  seen 
on  the  eve  of  battle  receiving  cartridge 
for  the  first  time  in  their  lives,  having  had 
no  explanation  of  a  rifle  whatever,  and 
actually  trying  to  see  if  the  cartridge  would 
fit  into  the  muzzle. 

26 


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THE   BATTLE-FIELDS 

True  or  not,  the  fact  would  not  be 
more  remarkable  than  the  inability  of 
many  Turkish  officers  either  to  read  or 
write.  The  Asiatic  mind  has  always  been 
a  puzzle,  especially  that  of  the  Turk. 
What  is  not  to  his  interest,  that  he  will  do. 
On  the  battle-field,  with  personal  and 
national  safety  hanging  on  his  alert  atten- 
tion, he  spends  time  in  mutilating  a  wounded 
enemy.  He  wastes  cartridge,  before  the 
fight,  in  shooting  women  and  children. 
Sometimes,  when  succoured  by  the  enemy's 
doctor,  the  wounded  Turk  turns  and  kills 
him.  Could  human  psychology  reach  a 
more  extreme  form  of  crookedness  ? 

Here,  in  the  futile  spade-scratches,  that 
would  not  have  sheltered  a  dog,  the 
muddle  and  disorder  of  the  Turk  stood 
symbolised.  Other  defects  have  wrought 
his  ruin  as  well — the  spirit  of  ascendancy, 
fatalism,  and  inhumanity.  These  have 
formed  the  main  ground  for  his  expulsion 
from  Europe.  They  are  allied  to  disorder  ; 
and  it  was  fitting  that  in  the  final  duel 
for  power  the  Turk   should  lose  by  bad 

27 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

trenches,  bad  transport,  and  disorder  in 
the  ranks — by  distrust  of  the  officers,  and 
doubts  as  to  whether  the  new  '  Committee- 
men '  respected  the  Sultan  or  upheld  the 
Koran. 

The  Bulgarian  trenches,  on  the  other 
hand,  were  distinguished  not  only  by  their 
workmanship,  but  by  their  extraordinary 
number.  Certain  it  is  that  the  great  agri- 
cultural tradition  of  the  Bulgars  served  them 
in  good  stead.  They  like  work,  and,  above 
all,  the  Bulgarian  is  a  gardener.  His 
maxim  in  battle  is  like  that  of  the  old 
Scotch  laird,  whose  advice,  when  nothing 
else  could  be  done,  was  '  to  be  aye 
planting  a  tree/  When  he  is  not  firing  or 
charging,  the  Bulgarian  soldier  is  always 
digging  a  trench.  By  the  side  of  Turkish 
incompetence,  the  different  outlook  of  the 
European  was  graphically  presented.  His 
trenches,  commanding  the  great  expanse, 
were  neatly  finished,  sometimes  as  big  as  a 
Norfolk  bank,  with  the  breaks,  to  prevent  an 
enfilading  fire,  regularly  and  neatly  finished. 

The   position  was  an  ideal    one,   even 

28 


THE  BATTLE-FIELDS 

for  several  lines  of  simultaneous  firing, 
and  at  one  point  I  counted  no  fewer 
than  five  trenches  arranged  in  gallery 
fashion.  From  here  the  shooting  was  at 
long  range,  very  different  from  the  short- 
range  shooting  at  Adrianople.  There,  as 
guest  of  the  Servian  general,  I  met  officers 
returning  from  their  twenty-four  hours 
in  the  trenches.  They  described  how  the 
chief  trouble  was  to  keep  still.  If  one 
stirred,  one's  head  showed  above  the  bank, 
and  the  Turkish  sharpshooters,  only  300 
yards  off,  were  dangerously  good  shots. 

To  return  to  the  hill  above  Lule  Burgas. 
Behind  its  crest  stood  the  Bulgarian  field 
guns.  Their  position  was  marked  by  finely 
built  emplacements,  outside  of  which  lay, 
in  some  cases,  over  a  hundred  spent 
shrapnel  cartridge.  They  reminded  me  of 
nothing  so  much  as  a  grouse  butt  after  a 
successful  drive,  multiplied  tenfold  in  size. 

Lule  Burgas  station  is  about  four  miles 
from  this  point.  As  the  Bulgarian  guns 
came  into  action,  a  train  was  starting 
which  had  stayed  in  the  station  till  too 

29 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

late  for  its  original  purpose.  It  was  in- 
tended to  carry  the  women  of  the  Turkish 
garrison,  and  was  already  rilled  with  flying 
non-combatants.  But,  seizing  the  oppor- 
tunity of  more  rapid  escape,  soldiers  also 
boarded  the  train,  and,  to  make  room  for 
themselves,  threw  out  many  of  the  women 
before  the  train  started.  The  Bulgarian 
guns  opened  fire  from  the  hills  above  and, 
getting  the  range,  bombarded  successfully 
the  two  engines  which  drew  the  train. 
It  was  derailed,  and  the  wreckage  resulting 
from  this  gruesome  incident  still  lay  by  the 
line  ten  days  later. 

We  now  rode  along  the  line  of  the 
main  Turkish  position,  north-east  of  the 
town.  It  was  a  balmy  and  sunny  day, 
and  the  pleasure  of  riding  over  the  open 
country  was  in  tragic  contrast  to  the 
thought  of  the  sights  and  sounds  which 
had  occupied  it  so  shortly  before.  The 
young  wheat-patches  were  aheady  turning 
green,  and  flocks  of  larks  gave  a  feeling 
of  England  in  spring.  But  the  long 
parallel    lines     of     trenches    exposed    at 

30 


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THE   BATTLE-FIELDS 

intervals  on  the  rounded  hills  served 
to  conjure  up  a  picture  of  the  great 
struggle  for  which  the  place  will  ever  be 
famous. 

At  some  points  the  Turkish  trenches 
were  lined  with  cartridge  ;  the  men  in 
many  cases  must  have  fired  two  hundred 
at  a  sitting.  In  the  Bulgarian  trenches, 
on  the  other  hand,  wherever  I  saw  them, 
it  was  quite  difficult  to  find  a  cartridge. 
I  asked  several  officers  about  this  paucity 
of  cartridge  in  the  Bulgarian  lines.  The 
explanation  which  I  generally  got  was 
the  great  number  of  trenches.  Many  of 
them  are  merely  provisional,  some  are 
made  by  the  second  line,  and  both  of 
these  classes  may  never  be  used  for 
firing.  Another  explanation  is  that  at 
manoeuvres  the  Bulgars  are  rigidly 
taught  to  pick  up  empty  cartridge 
(for  economy),  and  many  had  done 
this  from  force  of  habit  even  in  battle. 
But  it  is  also  a  complaint  of  the  Bulgarian 
Staff  that  the  men  are  too  unwilling  to 
shoot.     Until  the  attack  on  Chatalja  less 

3i 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

than  ten  million  rifle  cartridge  were 
used.  If  the  army  had  used  only  one 
hundred  rounds  per  man  per  day,  in  the 
five  days'  fighting  at  Lule  Burgas  the 
consumption  would  have  approached  fifty 
million,  in  that  one  battle  alone. 

The  men's  eagerness  for  the  bayonet 
amounted  almost  to  insubordination,  and 
led  to  serious  mishaps,  though  it  was, 
no  doubt,  in  the  main,  a  decisive  factor 
in  creating  the  original  panic  among  the 
Turks  which  made  the  turning-point  of  the 
war.  I  often  asked  the  wounded  whether 
there  were  any  bayonet  wounds  among 
them.  They  invariably  replied  with  eager- 
ness that  the  Turks  would  never  let  them 
get  near  enough.  Their  contempt  of  the 
Turks  prevailed  over  their  desire  to  show 
that  the3'T  had  beaten  a  valiant  enemy. 
It  is  said  that  on  only  one  occasion  did 
the  Turks  stand  by  their  trenches.  This 
was  at  a  village  east  of  Bunarhissar, 
where  the  Bulgarians  were  four  times 
driven  back  and  four  times  re-took  the 
position.     I  was  often  told  by  the  wounded 

32 


THE  BATTLE-FIELDS 

and  officers  the  following  story  :  The 
fear  of  the  bayonet  was  always  great, 
but  its  terror  was  increased  by  the  adroit- 
ness of  the  Christians  in  the  Turkish 
ranks.  The  order  to  '  fix  bayonets  '  is, 
in  Bulgarian,  '  Na  pret,  na  nosh/  The 
Turks  heard  the  words  across  the  inter- 
vening three  hundred  yards,  and  asked 
the  Christians  what  they  meant.  The 
sound  it  suggested  to  the  Christians  was 
the  words  '  Pet ;  na  nosh  '  ;  '  Pet '  means 
'  five/  and  it  occurred  to  the  Christians 
to  tell  the  Turks  that  the  order  meant 
1  five  on  each  bayonet/ 

We  noticed  at  first  the  absence  of 
graves,  but  the  explanation  was  soon 
evident.  The  trenches  served  as  ready- 
made  tombs.  The  work  of  burial  had 
been  heavy,  and  it  was  convenient  to  have 
no  more  to  do  than  drag  the  bodies  to 
the  trench  and  shovel  the  bank  upon 
them.  Sometimes  a  foot  protruded  from 
the  soil,  sometimes  a  face,  and  once 
we  came  on  a  more  gruesome  spectacle. 
The   land   is   heavy,  and   holds   water  at 

33  D 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

many  points.  After  the  battle,  when 
many  of  the  dead  lay  crouched  in  the 
trenches,  heavy  rain  fell ;  the  trench 
remained  full  of  water,  covering  the 
corpses.  When  the  burial  parties  came 
round  it  was  evidently  tempting  to  regard 
the  work  of  burial  in  these  cases  as  suffi- 
ciently done.  As  we  rode  along  a  trench 
we  sometimes  came  to  a  point  where 
the  water  had  fallen  by  a  few  inches  and 
left  exposed  a  head,  bent  sadly  down- 
wards, with  the  little  red  wound  in  the 
short  hair. 

The  Balkan  frogs  had  already  found 
these  newly-provided  watering-places,  and 
were  appreciating  the  advantages  of  war  ; 
so  also  were  the  lizards,  which,  where  a 
body  or  a  soldier's  coat  lay  on  the  open 
field,  were  quick  to  scurry  under  it  for 
shelter  as  we  passed.  Eagles  and  ravens 
also  were  feeding  on  the  bodies  of  the 
killed,  and  had  come  scores  of  miles 
from  the  hills,  which  they  are  generally 
reluctant  to  leave. 

A   little   further,    the   Bulgarian    guns 

34 


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THE  BATTLE-FIELDS 

had  got  the  range  of  a  regiment  in  re- 
treat. The  ground  within  a  circle  of  a 
hundred  yards  radius  showed  at  least 
fifty  marks  of  shell.  In  the  soft  clay  each 
had  dug  a  hole  almost  big  enough  for  a 
child's  grave.  A  great  deal  of  common  shell 
had  been  used  here,  the  irregular  seg- 
ments (intended  to  fly  apart)  being  em- 
bedded in  masses  in  the  earth,  several 
sticking  together.  Sometimes,  judging  by 
the  number  of  bullets  spread  in  the 
soil  only  a  few  inches  apart,  the  shrapnel 
must  have  burst  quite  close  to  the  ground  ; 
or  perhaps  these  were  marks  of  '  per- 
cussion shrapnel/  Here  the  dead  had 
lain  far  from  the  trenches,  and  had  been 
buried  one  by  one,  or  in  small  numbers 
together.  The  field  was  haunted  by 
occasional  dogs,  who  slunk  away  on  our 
approach.  Sometimes  the  shallow  grave 
had  served  only  to  preserve  the  human 
flesh  for  the  dogs  to  eat  when  horses 
were  finished.  At  one  point  a  pale  face 
loomed  from  the  brown  soil,  the  hands 
crossed  on  the  chest,   as  those  of  a  sick 

35  D2 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

man  arranged  by  a  nurse  for  sleep :  a 
strong,  young  face  with  ruddy  mous- 
tache and  hair,  gazing  at  the  blue  sky 
with   an   aspect  of  peace. 

War    blunts    the    sense     of    sympathy 
and  of  the    value    of    life,   which    grows 
with  order  and  civilisation,  but  the  suffer- 
ing    of     beasts    recalled    the    feelings    of 
normal    life.     The    guns    on    the    Turkish 
side   had   in   some   cases   admirable   posi- 
tions.    In    one    place,    where    perhaps    a 
German  officer  was  in  charge,  they  were 
not  only  behind  the  crest  of  the  hill  but 
a  long  way  below  it,  in  an  almost  hollow 
place.      Here    they   were    entirely   out   of 
sight    of    the    Bulgarian    gunners.       But 
guns  on  the  other  side  of  the  valley  had 
timed    their    shrapnel    right,    and    three 
horses   of   a   battery   had   here   been   hit. 
There  was  nothing  in  three  dead  horses 
to    excite    interest,    but    a    curious    mark 
in  the  ground  by  a  dead  horse's  fore  foot 
attracted    my    attention.     There    was    an 
exact  half  circle  of  raised  soil,  and  thinking 
that    it    might    record    some    mechanism 

36 


THE  BATTLE-FIELDS 

for  dealing  with  the  recoil  or  other  in- 
teresting feature  of  the  gun,  I  cantered 
across  to  examine  it.  The  explanation 
was  very  different.  The  horse,  after  being 
shot,  had  been  unable  to  rise — perhaps  his 
back  was  broken — and  in  struggling  to  get 
on  to  his  feet  he  had  scored  the  ground 
with  a  sweeping  motion,  almost  from  the 
nose  to  the  hind  leg.  The  poor  beast  must 
have  been  pawing  there  for  hours  together, 
so  deep  a  trench  had  been  dug  by  his 
hoof. 

The  chief  feature  of  Turkish  prepara- 
tion was  not  the  absence  of  ammuni- 
tion or  even  food ;  it  was  rather  the 
vast  extent  of  their  stores  combined  with 
the  total  failure  to  place  them  where 
wanted.  Part  of  the  army  starved; 
another  part  was  well  fed.  It  is  a  strik- 
ing feature  of  the  Turkish  positions  that 
traces  of  camps  and  cooking  were  as 
conspicuous  by  their  presence  as,  on 
the  Bulgarian  side,  by  their  absence. 
I  frequently  saw  large  areas  covered  by 

37 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

camp    kitchens,    and    littered    with    the 
heads  and  remains  of  sheep.     The  Bulgars, 
on  the  other  hand,  lived  on  bread,   and 
sometimes    little    of    that.     Even    in    the 
case  of  the  troopers  acting  as  our  personal 
servants,     their    officer     deprecated     our 
supplementing  in  any  way  their  daily  loaf. 
The    oddest    feature    of    the    Turkish 
camps  was  the  vast  quantity  of  clothing, 
linen,  and  padded  quilts  whch  they  threw 
away.     No  doubt  Asiatics  required  more 
protection  from  the  cold  than  the  Balkan 
native,    but    wherever     quilts    had    been 
distributed    from    the    regimental    trans- 
port and  used  for  the  night,  there  to  all 
appearance    they    remained.     What    was 
the    history    of    the     innumerable    linen 
shirts   also  left   upon   the  ground  no  in- 
genuity could  discover.     They  cannot  all 
have  been  looted  from  the  villages.     The 
Greeks  in  Lule  Burgas  described  the  Turk- 
ish  soldiers   flying   through   the   town   as 
throwing     away     every     garment     which 
impeded   them,    and   their   officers   them- 
selves as  clothed  with  hardly  more  than  a 

38 


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THE  BATTLE-FIELDS 

shirt.  From  the  incredible  litter  of  under- 
clothing left  in  the  camps  just  before 
the  flight  through  the  town  it  would 
appear  strange  that  even  a  shirt  was 
left  on  their  backs. 

Waste  of  equipment  was  further  illus- 
trated by  two  unused  aeroplanes,  one 
German,  the  other  English.  They  were 
damaged  in  the  wings  and  rudders,  but 
no  definite  steps  seemed  to  have  been 
taken  for  the  set  purpose  of  making 
them  useless.  They  had  probably  been 
spoilt  by  neglect,  after  the  manner  of 
Turkish  warships.  The  costly  machines 
were  typical  of  Turkish  waste.  A 
great  feature  of  the  war  has  been 
the  abandonment  of  immense  stores, 
frequently  including  items  which  could 
only  be  classed  as  luxuries.  The  Bul- 
garians were  astonished  to  see  what 
money  had  been  spent,  e.g.  on  metal 
tent-pegs  and  fastenings,  such  as  they 
are  accustomed  to  cut  for  themselves. 
Money  had  been  poured  out  on  the 
extravagances  of  military  material.     Not 

39  -+ 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

content  with  flying  machines,  which  no 
living  Turk  could  manipulate,  the  Turks 
had  bought  costly  motor  ambulances, 
for  which  no  employment  was  ever  found. 
One  of  these  was  in  use  by  the  Bulgar- 
ians before  I  left  Kirklisse.  It  was  as 
if  the  manufacturers  in  Germany  and 
army  agents  in  Turkey  had  conspired 
to  spend  the  maximum  of  money,  and 
had  imposed  on  the  unfortunate  tax- 
payer the  cost  of  any  article  which  could, 
by  the  smallest  excuse,  be  described  as 
military   equipment. 

But  what  was  most  strange  was 
the  reckless  abandonment  of  ammunition. 
There  seemed  to  be  a  positive  mania 
for  throwing  away  unused  cartridge.  I 
could  certainly  have  picked  up  hundreds 
of  the  familiar  clips  holding  five  unused 
cartridges  apiece.  Sometimes  the  cart- 
ridges lay  singly,  which  is  even  more 
puzzling,  because  they  would  need  to  be 
pulled  from  the  clips  separately.  The 
most  astonishing  spectacle  of  this  kind 
was  on  the  road  from  Kirklisse  to  Bunar- 

40 


THE  BATTLE-FIELDS 

hissar.  This  had  been  the  main  line  of 
flight.  In  the  desperate  attempt  to  get 
away,  the  road  had  been  blocked  with 
ox-waggons,  guns,  and  gun-carriages.  For 
more  than  a  mile  it  runs  round  the  side 
of  a  hill,  where  no  vehicle  could  spread 
out  to  right  or  left.  Many  were  over- 
turned down  the  bank,  and  dead  oxen 
lay  there  when  I  passed.  Beyond  the 
bridge,  where  the  land  gets  flatter,  the 
wild  panic  spread  across  unploughed  land. 
The  winding  tracks  through  the  low  scrub 
were  deeply  rutted,  and  everywhere,  both 
on  the  road  and  off  it,  was  shrapnel  shell, 
in  caissons  holding  over  forty,  in  boxes  by 
the  score,  big  boxes,  small  boxes,  and, 
strangest  of  all,  lying  singly,  as  if  the 
driver  on  his  caisson  picked  them  one 
by  one  from  their  pigeon-holes,  in  mad 
haste  to  lighten  the  load  and  let  the 
beasts  get  ahead  of  some  other  fugitive. 
Such  a  whirlwind  of  human  fear,  such  an 
accumulated  agony  of  over-driven  beasts 
must  have  been  present  along  that  road, 
as  would  suffice  to  furnish  hell. 

4i 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

It  is  a  marvel  that  after  that  mental 
breakdown  the  army  stood  its  ground  at 
Lule  Burgas  and  at  many  points  fought 
so  well  that  victory  hung  in  the  balance. 
The  great  battle  lasted  from  November  28 
to  December  2,  and  on  the  third  day 
its  fate  was  still  uncertain.  Desperate 
measures  were  required,  and  a  certain 
Bulgarian  general  was  told  that  by  such 
a  time  the  next  day  such  a  position  must 
be  taken  at  all  costs.  He  proceeded  to 
ride  with  his  whole  staff  in  front  of  the  line 
— thus  breaking  rules  with  which  even  I,  as 
an  ex-volunteer  field  officer,  was  familiar. 
His  horse  was  shot  under  him  in  the 
river,  and  one  of  the  staff  was  killed. 
But  the  men,  with  the  extra  enthusiasm 
added  to  their  normal  elan,  were  irre- 
sistible ;  the  position  was  taken  within 
a  few  hours.  The  general,  who  had  been 
expected  about  noon  next  day  to  report 
the  result  of  his  desperate  attempt,  walked 
quietly  into  headquarters  the  same 
evening,  and  with  Bulgarian  frigidity 
reported  the  position  captured. 

42 


THE  BATTLE-FIELDS 

Following  the  Turkish  lines  northwards 
for  some  miles,  we  crossed  the  field  to 
explore  the  Bulgarian  position,  and  stopped 
for  lunch  at  Turk  Bey.  We  opened  our 
tins  of  potted  meat  in  a  pretty  hollow, 
where  the  mulberry  trees  shaded  a  field 
of  vines.  The  leaves  were  falling  in  the 
sunshine  after  the  frosty  night,  and  covered 
the  ground.  We  sat  down,  but  found 
our  seat  surprisingly  hard ;  the  reason 
was  peculiar  ;  the  ground  under  the  fallen 
leaves  was  thick  with  cartridge.  Feeling 
sociable  after  lunch,  we  walked  into  the 
village.  An  old  Greek  peasant  delighted 
me  with  his  attempts  to  carry  on  con- 
versation. My  vocabulary  permitted  my 
asking  where  were  the  Turks.  I  have 
seldom  seen  a  human  being  look  happier 
than  that  good-looking  old  man,  when 
he  pointed  to  the  south-east,  and  laughed 
with  profound  delight. 

Our  next  move  was  to  the  army  at  the 
front.  A  military  train  crawled  uncom- 
fortably through  the  open  valley  of  the 

43 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

Ergene  river,  hitherto  associated  by  so 
many  of  us  with  the  luxury  of  the  Orient 
express. 

Just  east  of  Lule  Burgas  the  train  ran 
through  an  incredible  litter  of  cart-wheels 
and  caissons,  and  past  the  wreckage  of 
engines  and  railway  carriages  bombarded 
as  the  battle  closed.  Here  occurred  the 
desperate  stampede,  the  miserable  struggle 
of  troops  and  refugees  to  Constantinople. 
There  was  little  more  fighting  except  rear- 
guard actions ;  the  Bulgars  were  tired, 
and  had  out-run  their  transport.  The 
roads  were  worse  than  ever  after  Sarai, 
where  the  ground  becomes  hilly  and 
wooded  with  oak  scrub.  At  times  the  gun- 
carriages  could  not  pass,  and  the  guns  were 
carried  by  the  hands  of  men.  Fever 
had  broken  out  already  among  the 
retreating  Turks ;  the  Bulgarian  army 
arrived  at  Chatalja  both  exhausted 
and  sick.  But  the  fate  of  the  Turks  in 
Europe  was  sealed.  Barbarity  to  peaceful 
villagers  was  avenged.  Europe  was  finally 
freed. 

44 


•>  > 


>  >,  ' ,    1 


TURKISH  RAILWAY  CARRIAGE,  IN  WHICH  THE  ARMISTICE  WAS  SIGNED. 


SHELTER    FROM    SHELL    FIRE. 


THE  BATTLE-FIELDS 

My  brother  and  I  reached  Chorlu  on 
November  12.  Here  were  the  headquarters 
of  the  cavalry  division  attached  to  the  two 
armies,  which  had  now  joined  together 
under  the  command  of  General  Dimitrieff, 
with  Colonel  Jostoff  for  chief  of  the  Staff. 
General  Nazlamoff,  who  commands  the 
cavalry,  kindly  invited  us  and  the  lieutenant 
accompanying  us  to  share  his  quarters. 
It  was  a  pleasant  party  in  a  clean  Greek 
house.  The  general  and  I  had  friends  in 
common  in  the  British  army.  He  was 
tickled  by  the  views  of  a  Turkish  member 
of  Parliament  whom  I  had  found  travelling 
out  in  the  Orient  express.  The  Oriental 
M.P.  held,  even  after  the  battle  of 
Lule  Burgas,  that  all  the  retirements 
of  the  Turkish  army  had  been  part  of  a 
strategic  plan.  It  was  their  intention 
thus  to  entrap  the  enemy.  '  Yes,'  said 
Nazlamoff,  '  it  was  just  like  a  Turkish  plan, 
to  leave  behind  their  food,  guns,  ammuni- 
tion, all  the  railway  bridges  undestroyed, 
and  to  get  behind  the  Chatalja  forts/ 

At  Chorlu  station  was  the  one  piece  of 

45 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

effective  destruction  to  the  railway  which  I 
saw.  None  of  the  bridges  were  broken,  but 
a  picturesque  object  existed  in  the  railway 
water  tank,  which  had  been  exploded  with 
a  bomb.  The  station  pump,  however, 
supplied  the  deficiency,  a  line  of  men 
handing  buckets  along  from  the  pump  to 
the  engine,  so  that  the  ingenuity  of  the 
Turks  only  delayed  us  some  half  an  hour. 
The  rear-guard  action,  which  handed  over 
Chorlu  to  the  invaders,  lasted  only  two 
or  three  hours,  but  there  must  have  been 
sharp  fighting  round  the  station.  Dead 
horses  were  too  numerous  for  comfort,  and 
the  railway  track  itself  was  littered  with 
cartridge.  The  whole  neighbourhood  was, 
as  was  usual  where  the  Turks  had  been, 
whitened  with  printed  Turkish  paper.  The 
army  and  the  refugees  had  left  the  pre- 
cincts foul  beyond  description.  We  arrived 
about  sunset,  and  it  was  dark  before  the 
truck  in  which  were  our  horses  could  be 
brought  alongside  the  dock.  Our  train, 
loaded  with  bread,  horses,  cartridge,  and 
troops,    came    to    rest.     Red    Cross    men 

46 


■>   '  \ 


)     I 


.     >■> 


« 
o 
w 

O 
H 

K 
W 
H 

& 
d 

Q 

W 
>< 

< 
o 

H 
O 

<: 
< 

w 
o 


THE  BATTLE-FIELDS 

began  to  appear,  ominously  gathering  for 
the  coming  carnage.  Around  us  was  a 
scene  of  filth  and  disorder.  Dead  horses 
lay  by  the  station  wall,  gnawed  by  dogs, 
the  skin  torn  off.  A  vile  smell  of 
ordure  arose  from  the  camp  ground.  We 
waited  patiently  for  our  horses,  while  the 
stench  grew  with  the  stiller  air  of  evening. 
The  exploded  water  tank  loomed  crooked 
against  the  sky.  From  the  direction  of 
Rhodosto  came  the  growl  of  guns  from  the 
Turkish  ships,  vainly  trying  to  prevent  the 
Bulgarian  entry.  The  incongruity  of  war — 
engines  on  the  one  hand  jostling  elementary 
disorder  on  the  other — came  home  to  the 
mind  with  the  finer  perceptions  induced  by 
twilight.  Over  all  the  abominations  of 
sight  and  sound  and  smell,  a  pink  and 
gorgeous  sunset  seemed  to  smile  at  the 
pathos  of  man's  wasted  opportunities,  to 
point  out  the  egregious  folly  of  humanity 
in  a  temper. 


47 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   WOUNDED 

Our  main  concern  on  returning  from  the 
front  was  as  to  the  arrival  of  the  English 
Red  Cross  contingents.  The  fight  at 
Chatalja  was  actually  in  progress,  and  the 
flood  of  wounded  loomed  before  us  as  an 
overwhelming  emergency  for  which  in  any 
case  preparations  could  not  be  complete. 
We  had  on  reaching  Sofia,  three  weeks 
before,  pleaded  that  the  medical  units  of 
the  Balkan  War  Relief  Fund  had  a  claim 
to  favoured  treatment,  associated  as  they 
were  with  organised  workers  for  the  Balkan 
cause.  We  urged  that  they  must  not, 
like  all  the  other  foreign  medical  contin- 
gents at  that  time,  be  detained  at  the 
capital,  or  even  at  the  intermediate 
hospitals  near  the  Turkish  frontier.     The 

48 


THE  WOUNDED 

Russians  alone,  as  relatives  and  patrons 
of  Bulgaria,  had  obtained  leave  to  work 
in  the  zone  of  war.  The  English  were 
allowed  to  join  them,  and  their  arrival 
was  anxiously  awaited. 

The  Russian  Red  Cross  unit  had  arrived 
a  week  before,  with  magnificent  equipment. 
Its  splendours  were  notorious.  It  had  re- 
quired the  services  of  no  fewer  than  225  ox- 
waggons  to  bring  it  to  the  front.  The  large 
Turkish  barracks,  a  mile  from  the  town, 
supplied  the  only  possible  building  for  its 
installation ;  but  the  Turks  had  left  them 
in  a  condition  unfit  for  a  stable.  Many 
days  had  to  elapse  before  the  equipment 
could  be  even  unpacked.  One  of  the  two 
blocks  allotted  was  at  last  cleansed.  In 
the  upper  floor  lay  200  wounded,  in  their 
blood-clotted  uniforms,  almost  untended, 
mostly  on  the  floor.  Six  had  died  the 
previous  night.  The  staff  were  engrossed 
in  preparations  for  work  on  modern  lines. 
The  doctor  in  charge  protested  against 
the  Bulgarian  authorities  who  had  sent 
in  wounded  before  he   was   ready.     Nine 

49  E 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

days   later    the    hospital  was    beautifully 
equipped. 

The  British  Red  Cross  units  undertook 
one  of  the  blocks  of  barracks  adjoining 
those  occupied  by  the  Russians.  Their 
first  task  was  to  clean  out  the  indescribable 
accumulation  of  filth  of  which  a  Turkish 
barrack  consists.  A  strange  spectacle 
presented  itself  when  I  first  called  on 
Major  Birrell,  the  commandant  of  the  two 
units  respectively  of  the  Sussex  Red 
Cross  Society  and  the  Balkan  War  Relief 
Fund.  With  Turkish  unaccountableness,  the 
greatest  accumulation  of  rubbish  was  in 
the  top  storey,  and  from  the  attic  window 
in  the  gable  of  the  long  building  descended 
a  continuous  stream  of  unsavoury  dirt, 
hurled  therefrom  by  the  long-suffering 
orderlies  of  the  unit.  Sanitary  provision 
had  been  nil.  The  surrounding  land,  close 
to  the  operating-room  of  what  had  been  the 
Turkish  military  hospital,  gave  forth  an 
effluvia  sufficient  to  counteract  the  most 
perfect  antiseptic  precautions.  Whatever 
else  the  British  accomplished,  they  educated 

50 


■>      >  ■    1 


J     )  I  )        > 

.  >' 


o 

H 

o 

u 

in 

in 
O 
« 
u 

Q 
W 
« 

<: 
»-* 

D 


THE  WOUNDED 

the  local  mind  to  think  about  sanitation. 
Their  model  provisions  for  keeping  a  camp 
clean  were  installed  in  the  quagmire  of  filth 
some  fifty  yards  from  the  building.  The 
gangway  to  them  was  marked  out  in  white 
stones,  and  what  had  been  a  horror  to  the 
nose  and  a  danger  to  the  wounded  became 
an  example  which  edified  while  it  amused. 

The  long  rooms  of  the  barrack  quickly 
assumed  the  aspect  of  hospital  wards  in 
London,  with  ample  space  and  an  air  of 
calm.  With  six  doctors  and  an  operating- 
room,  the  patients  had  every  chance  that 
skilled  attention  could  give. 

Across  the  road  the  former  military 
hospital  of  the  Turks  held  500  wounded. 
It  was  in  the  charge  of  one  Bulgarian 
doctor.  Foreign  contingents  struggled 
to  maintain  Western  standards  of  bed 
space,  though  these  had  been  abandoned 
even  at  the  model  hospital  organised  by 
the  Queen.  The  army  medical  authori- 
ties found  the  overcrowding  in  their 
own  hospitals  and  shelters  all  the  more 
intense,    and    talked    of    the    better    use 

51  E  2 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

which  they  could  have  made  of  the 
buildings  taken  as  a  whole.  But  this 
was  partly  due  to  their  own  defective 
organisation.  The  work  of  forwarding 
convalescents  to  hospitals  nearer  home 
was  not  kept  up  to  date,  and  the  new 
arrivals  were  not  efficiently  classified. 
The  function  of  the  foreign  units,  with 
their  ample  staff  of  doctors  and  medi- 
cal equipment  was,  clearly,  to  deal  with 
the  severer  cases,  but  frequently  when 
a  train-load  of  wounded  arrived,  cases 
less  severe  were  allowed  to  get  into  foreign 
hospitals  and  there  occupy  space.  This 
made  it  less  likely  that  foreign  units 
would  stretch  a  point  to  adapt  them- 
selves to  the  views  of  the  local  authori- 
ties. Undoubtedly  the  latter  would  have 
benefited  vastly  by  an  offer  of  work 
from  individual  foreign  doctors  with  a 
knowledge  of  French  or  German.  A 
sympathetic  adaptability  of  nature,  with 
an  interest  in  the  general  end  in  view, 
would  be  quite  sufficient  to  make  such  a 
system  agreeable  to  both  parties.     Where 

52 


THE  WOUNDED 

500  men  depended  on  one  doctor  (partly 
occupied  also  as  general  supervisor  of 
the  hospitals  in  the  town),  the  work 
of  one  extra  doctor  working  with  him 
would  have  accomplished  many  times  more 
than  it  produced  in  conjunction  with  an 
ample  staff  treating  small  numbers  of  the 
wounded.  The  space,  attention,  time,  and 
equipment  devoted  to  each  case  in  some 
of  the  foreign  hospitals  seemed  inappro- 
priate to  the  general  pressure.  The  army 
authorities  rightly  desired  to  adapt  the 
total  means  available  to  the  total  problem 
to  be  dealt  with.  Many  unsuitable 
buildings  in  the  town — private  houses, 
Turkish  and  Greek  schools — had  to  be 
hurriedly  fitted  with  military  beds  or 
with  palliasses  on  the  floor,  and  not 
only  were  these  over-full,  but  the  very 
passages  were  crowded  with  wounded  men 
who  could  find  no  other  space. 

In  this  situation  it  appeared  to  the 
amateur  onlooker  that  the  finest  service 
rendered  by  any  foreign  unit  was  that  of 
the  English  unit  known  as  the  Women's 

53 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

Convoy    Corps.     The    Red    Cross    Society 
of   Great  Britain  had   announced  in    The 
Times    that    women    were    out    of    place 
in  the  Balkan  War,   and  that  they  were 
not  responsible  for  the  women  who  under- 
took   work.     But    to    anyone    who    had 
seen  in  the  Balkan  hospitals  the  immense 
and  indispensable   part   being    played  by 
women,    it    seemed    a    needless    penance 
for    the    British    units    that    they    should 
confine    themselves    to    male    society.     It 
was,    therefore,    consoling    to    find    when 
they  arrived  at   Kirklisse  that  they  had 
been  supplied  at  Sofia  with  the  services  (as 
interpreters)  of  two  Bulgarian  young  ladies, 
without   whom   they  could  not   have   ac- 
complished the  journey  efficiently  or  made 
their  arrangements  with  the  authorities,  and 
the   advantages   of  whose   company    they 
were    very    naturally    inclined   to   recog- 
nise.     Mrs.  Stobart,  the  commandante  of 
the   Convoy   Corps,    seeing   the   notice   in 
The  Times  deprecating  the  employment  of 
women,   paid  a  visit  to  the  scene  of  war 
before  deciding  that  it  was  a  place  where 

54 


THE  WOUNDED 

ladies  could  work.  A  mere  man  would 
perhaps  have  considered  the  hardships 
too  great ;  but  the  corps  was  summoned 
by  telegram.  Mrs.  Stobart  and  her  three 
doctors,  her  nurses,  orderlies,  dressers,  and 
cooks  endured  several  days  of  travel  in  the 
Balkan  bullock-waggons,  which  have  no 
further  covering  than  wicker  hoods.  In  these 
they  slept  at  night  without  even  the  luxury 
of  straw,  after  the  scanty  stock  had  been 
used  to  feed  the  bullocks,  to  relieve  the 
hardness  of  the  waggon-boards.  I  should 
not  have  thought  it  possible  that  women 
(or  at  all  events  men),  many  of  them 
accustomed  to  luxury,  would  survive  this 
experience  without  breakdown,  but  there 
was  not  a  word  of  complaint.  No  sooner 
had  they  arrived  in  Kirklisse  (to  find 
that  in  the  confusion  no  preparation 
had  been  made  for  their  arrival)  than 
they  attacked,  without  a  moment's  delay, 
the  labour  of  cleansing  and  disinfecting 
the  filthy  houses  assigned  to  them  ;  un- 
packing their  equipment ;  and  creating  in 
the   back   yard   some  tolerable  conditions 

55 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

of  sanitation.  Though  tired  out,  their 
only  anxiety  had  been  that  they  would 
arrive  too  late  to  cope  with  the  main 
burden  of  the  Chatalja  wounded. 

Next  day  I  reported  to  them  the 
crush  which  prevailed  in  the  treatment- 
room  of  the  Bulgarian  hospital.  They 
immediately  undertook  this  extra  '  out- 
patient '  task,  although  most  of  their 
equipment  was  still  unpacked.  In  the 
first  two  days  they  had  thus  treated  131 
cases.  To  contribute  a  maximum  of 
help  to  the  army  medical  department 
of  a  small  and  undeveloped  State  such 
as  we  were  sent  to  assist,  required  a  high 
degree  of  sympathy,  enthusiasm  for  the 
end,  freedom  from  professionalism,  and 
a  total  indifference  to  personal  discomfort. 
These  qualities  were  displayed  by  the 
Convoy  Corps  in  a  degree  which  I  should 
have  thought  it  impossible  to  realise. 

If  any  criticism  of  the  Convoy  Corps 
were  admissible,  it  might  be  urged  that 
they  carried  good  nature  to  a  dangerous 
point.     Two  days  only  after  their  arrival, 

56 


THE  WOUNDED 

when  they  had  already  accomplished  an 
easy  record  in  getting  a  hospital  ready, 
they  sat  down  to  a  most  inadequate 
supper ;  all  of  them,  I  should  say,  in 
danger  of  breakdown  from  the  excessive 
work  of  starting  the  hospital  without 
time  to  prepare  their  equipment.  We 
had  hardly  attacked  the  corned  beef 
which  was  to  form  the  meal  when  it  was 
announced  that  some  twenty  ox-waggons 
filled  with  wounded  had  arrived  in  the  dark- 
ness at  the  house,  sent  by  the  authorities. 
I  recognised  the  ordinary  attempt  to 
take  advantage  of  good-natured  people 
and  avoid  the  trouble  of  arranging  matters 
in  one  of  the  Bulgarian  hospitals,  but 
argument  failed  to  outweigh  the  energy 
and  sense  of  duty  of  the  women  pioneers. 
Supper  was  at  once  abandoned,  and  the 
next  few  hours  were  spent  in  arduous 
labour.  The  wounded  were  carried  one 
by  one  out  of  the  waggons ;  straw 
mattresses  and  beds  were  hastily  pre- 
pared. There  were  not  beds  enough,  and 
in   one   of    the   downstair   rooms    six    of 

57 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

9 

the  men  were  laid  on  litter.  It  was 
not  long  before  soup  also  made  its  appear- 
ance. Most  of  the  men  were  badly  wounded  ; 
a  few  were  sick.  One  poor  wretch,  tor- 
tured with  rheumatism,  spoke  fluent 
French,  having  been  a  waiter  at  Sofia. 
He  described  how  the  troops  had  to  stand 
in  the  trenches  with  water  to  the  waist. 

As  agent  for  the  Balkan  War  Relief 
Fund  I  was  specially  fortunate  to  secure 
the  services  of  the  Convoy  Corps  with  no 
more  expense  than  the  cost  of  their  travel, 
they  and  their  friends  supplying  the  rest. 

They  placed  the  supporters  of  the  Fund 
under  a  deep  debt  of  gratitude.  They  repre- 
sented exactly  that  adaptability  of  spirit, 
that  understanding  of  foreign  needs  and 
foreign  languages,  without  which  half  the 
value  of  the  costly  efforts  of  the  Red  Cross 
Society  in  Continental  wars  may  be  lost. 

I  hesitate  to  state  fully  what  I  saw 
of  the  wounded  in  the  Balkan  War.  We 
dislike  horrors,  and  we  dislike  the  people 
who   have   a   taste   for   them.     The   ugly 

58 


THE  WOUNDED 

facts  in  normal  life  we  agree  not  to  speak 
of.  There  grows  up  a  feeling  that  to 
tell  painful  truths  of  any  kind  shows 
bad  taste.  Thus  reform  is  neglected.  I 
have  for  years  felt  the  difficulty  in  regard 
to  atrocious  features  incidental  to  Turkish 
government.  Their  recital  might  move 
the  sympathetic  to  action  ;  but  we  fear  to 
incur  the  charge  of  bad  form.  The  man 
who  has  seen  war  is  in  the  same  dilemma. 
What  is  the  distinction  between  horrors 
to  tell  and  horrors  to  conceal  ?  It  lies 
surely  in  the  difference  between  evils 
removable  and  irremovable.  If  war  and 
neglect  of  wounds  are  a  fixed  quantity, 
the  less  said  the  better.  Let  us  leave 
Zola's  *  La  Debacle  '  to  the  prurient  and 
the  idle.  But  clearly  the  diminution  of 
pain  in  war  has  been  one  of  the  aims 
most  unanimously  pursued  by  modern 
Europe.  Geneva  Conventions  and  diplo- 
macy itself  have  even  dealt  with  the 
pain  of  injured  horses.  And  now  the 
whole  question  of  the  utility  of  war 
itself    is    on    the    table.     The    problem   is 

59 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

vital,  and  for  its  solution  it  is  essential 
to  know  the  facts.  But  how  are  we  to 
know  them  ?  It  is  rare,  and  becoming 
rarer,  that  they  are  seen  by  any  but 
the  professional  men  employed  and  en- 
grossed in  the  work.  The  lay  onlooker 
is  excluded  more  and  more  from  military 
operations.  The  professional  is  debarred 
from  writing ;  he  is  committed,  also, 
quite  naturally,  to  a  partial  and  uncritical 
view.  So  much  the  more,  I  conclude, 
is  the  amateur,  whose  rare  fortune  it 
is  to  see  war,  bound  to  state  the  cold 
truth  as  he  saw  it,  and  leave  his  hearers 
to  judge  of  it  as  they  choose. 

In  the  base  hospitals  one  found  that 
vast  section  of  the  wounded  which  might 
be  called  hopeful.  From  the  original 
harvest  of  the  battle-field,  collected  at 
first  in  open-air  bivouacs  which  foreign 
army  medical  corps  call  lazarettes,  had 
been  eliminated,  first,  those  who  died 
before  treatment  ;  next,  those  who  died 
under    the    surgeon's    knife ;     then    those 

60 


THE  WOUNDED 

too  severely  injured  to  be  moved  from 
the  hopitaux  de  champ.  From  these  tent- 
hospitals,  admirably  designed  and  served 
each  by  a  staff  numbering  over  a  hundred 
men,  the  process  of  evacuation  was  con- 
tinually hastened  by  the  arrival  of  fresh 
cases  for  whom  no  room  could  be  found. 
Their  predecessors,  with  wounds  hastily 
sterilised  and  bandaged,  were  thrust  out 
perforce  upon  the  long  journey  home- 
wards. The  waggons  which  had  brought 
ammunition  or  bread  to  the  front  never 
went  back  empty.  Broken  men,  who 
needed  to  be  nursed  quietly  in  bed  for 
many  weeks,  were  crowded  into  every 
one.  Some  could  climb  into  the  waggon, 
most  needed  stretchers ;  a  few  could 
walk.  To  most  the  jolting  in  these  spring- 
less  carts  must  have  meant  extreme  pain. 
It  was  evident  in  the  white  and  drawn 
faces  that  one  perceived  beneath  the 
waggon  hoods  in  endless  succession  as 
one  rode  towards  the  front  along  the 
returning  stream.  The  men  marching  out 
and  the  mangled    carried  home,   recalled 

61 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

those  vast  machines  in  the  slaughter- 
houses of  Chicago,  where  the  cattle  go 
forward  in  endless  line,  and  are  carried 
back  dismembered. 

From  Lule  Burgas  the  pitiless  journey 
into  Bulgaria  took  eight  days.  For  the 
Chatalja  fight  the  Turkish  railway  could 
be  used,  and  the  strain  was  less  terrible ; 
Kirklisse  took  the  place  of  Yamboli  as 
the  first  intermediate  base ;  and  those 
who  could  find  room  in  the  daily  train 
arrived  from  the  front  in  one  day,  or  two. 
But  even  so  many  died  on  the  route. 

It  will  be  realised  that  the  army  of 
invalids  who  reached  the  final  base  at 
Sofia  or  Belgrade  was  a  highly  selected 
one.  Yet  even  these,  which  I  have  called 
by  comparison  '  hopeful/  often  arrived 
only  just  in  time  to  die.  Established 
at  last  in  a  bed  and  bed-clothes,  their 
names  were  posted  at  the  hospital  door, 
the  first  and  only  announcement  of  the 
casualty. 

In   Belgrade,  as   we  passed  in   at   the 
door,    I    saw    women    crowding    to    read 

62 


THE  WOUNDED 

the  list.  In  the  ward  a  well-known  Servian 
lady,  turned  nurse  for  the  time,  in  white 
cap  and  apron  with  the  red  cross  on  the 
chest,  explained  that  work  was  impeded 
by  crowding ;  there  were  so  many 
relatives  come  to  see  the  wounded,  dead 
or  dying.  On  one  side  of  us  lay  a  corpse, 
quite  unscreened.  Next  bed  but  one  to 
this,  an  old  man  held  his  dying  son's 
hand.  In  the  bed  opposite  lay  a  man 
with  ashy  grey  face.  He  was,  the  nurse 
said,  just  dying.  Relatives  were  sum- 
moned, when  possible,  before  the  death. 
If  not,  the  nurses  took  down  the  last 
message  to  wife  or  child.  It  was  tire- 
some that  the  message  took  long  to  give — ■ 
the  men  spoke  so  slowly.  As  we  passed 
down  the  ward,  the  old  man  got  up  to 
leave  ;    his  son's  breathing  had  stopped. 

At  Chorlu,  where  the  cavalry  section 
of  the  Chatalja  army  was  quartered,  field 
hospitals  were  gathering  for  the  carnage. 
They  had  turned  to  account  an  empty 
Turkish  house  and  installed  the  wounded 

63 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

from  the  battle  in  which  Chorlu  was  taken. 
The  doctor,  who  spoke  good  English, 
asked  me  to  go  the  rounds.  The  cases 
needing  dressing  were  afterwards  brought 
down  on  stretchers. 

The  first,  a  Turk,  had  the  right  eye 
destroyed.  The  bullet  had  passed  on 
behind  the  nose  and  lodged  near  the  left 
ear.  Gifted  happily  with  a  low  organism, 
the  man  seemed  stupefied  to  pain. 

A  trooper,  whose  rifle  had  burst  in 
his  face,  was  dreadfully  disfigured.  The 
doctor,  one  of  the  most  humane,  tore  the 
bandage  sharply  off.  The  man  screamed. 
The  doctor  held  strongly  that  only  so  could 
the  wounds  be  thoroughly  inspected. 
The  man's  coat  was  drenched  with 
suppurating  matter — a  servant  was  sent  to 
mop  it  up.  But  this  was  one  of  the  least 
important  cases. 

The  next  had  no  fewer  than  eleven 
wound-marks.  Three  bullets  had  gone 
through  the  shoulder  and  two  through 
the  arm,  making  ten  holes.  One  bullet 
had  touched   the   lung.     There   was   also 

64 


THE  WOUNDED 

a  shrapnel  mark  grazing  the  forearm. 
This  was  not  a  record.  At  Belgrade  a 
man  had  five  shrapnel  balls  (much  more 
serious  things  than  rifle  bullets)  embedded 
in  him.  Another  had  fourteen  wounds 
from  one  percussion  shell. 

Often  the  tiny  pointed  bullet  of  the 
Turkish  Mauser  left,  after  a  week,  no 
more  mark  than  a  bug-bite.  Its  praises 
as  a  factor  tout  a  fait  humanitaire  were 
in  every  Bulgarian's  mouth.  Many  men, 
hating  to  stop  fighting,  were  perforated 
three  times  before  they  confessed  a  wound. 
The  bullet  cauterised  its  own  track. 

The  desire  to  fight  again  was  vehement 
among  the  wounded  from  Lule  Burgas, 
less  so  of  course  from  Chatalja,  where 
sickness  was  in  the  air.  A  doctor,  per- 
forming a  desperate  operation  after  the 
former,  could  catch  the  man's  habitual 
thought  reflected  by  the  sub-conscious 
mind.  Just  before  death  he  muttered, 
1  Get  me  well  to  fight  at  Chatalja.' 

In  some  cases  men  were  blinded  by  shell- 
explosions.      Blinding  seemed  to  stupefy 

65  F 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

the  mind.  A  man  so  injured  said  to  the 
doctor,  '  The  flour  has  got  into  my  eyes 
and  the  mice  are  eating  it/ 

The  majority  of  infantrymen  were  hit 
in  the  left  arm  or  hand,  as  it  was  lifted 
for  firing.  Shrapnel  balls  (coming  from 
above)  often  struck  the  shoulders,  back, 
and  legs.  We  saw  many  men  pierced 
through  the  lungs.  An  officer  rode  six 
miles  shot  just  below  the  heart. 

Stomach  wounds  were  ominously  few. 
They  were,  the  doctors  said,  nearly  always 
fatal. 

At  Philippopolis  the  Queen  had  in- 
stalled the  hospital  which  she  had  con- 
trolled in  the  Manchurian  war.  Its  head, 
Dr.  Michaelovski,  had  some  interesting 
cases,  of  which  the  one  most  fit  for  publi- 
cation was  that  of  a  deep  wound  in  the 
brain.  Trepanning,  on  the  left  side,  had 
left  the  man  completely  paralysed  on 
the  right,  except  as  to  the  eye. 

At  Kirklisse,  about  November  22, 
military  trains  filled  with  wounded  were 
arriving    daily,    often    long    after    dark. 

66 


5 


,  I 


THE  WOUNDED 

They  had  only  had  one  treatment  about 
a  week  before  we  received  them.  There 
was  no  ambulance  train.  Some  travelled 
in  open  trucks.  Serious  operations  had 
not  been  possible  at  the  front,  for  practic- 
ally all  Bulgarian  doctors  were  occupied 
in  the  field  hospitals  attached  to  each 
division  and  with  the  lazarettes  on  the 
field  of  battle. 

My  brother  and  I  found  that  in  the 
Bulgarian  hospital  an  intolerable  situation 
existed.  The  number  of  men  needing  to 
have  their  wounds  dressed  was  far  greater 
than  could  be  kept  pace  with.  There  were 
no  means  of  supplying  them  with  fresh 
clothing,  and  scores  lay  about  the  floor 
of  the  improvised  building,  packed  so  close 
that  for  some  days  they  overflowed  into 
the  streets.  Those  who  could  walk,  and 
needed  treatment,  struggled  in  a  dense 
mass  at  the  door  of  the  surgery  awaiting 
their  turn.  The  provision  for  dealing  with 
this  emergency  consisted  of  five  dressers, 
some  of  whom  had  no  more  experience 
than  myself.  The  doctor  in  charge  took 
advantage  of  our  visit  of  inspection,  and 

67  F  2 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

begged  my  brother  and  myself  to  join 
in  the  work. 

These  crowded  treatment-rooms  were 
a  feature  of  many  Bulgarian  hospitals. 
Work  was  largely  done  by  untrained 
ladies  of  the  place:  in  fact,  the  whole 
leisured  womanhood  was  working  for  the 
wounded,  while  the  whole  manhood  of 
the  country  was  at  the  front.  In  one 
room  I  saw  a  girl  of  fifteen  plugging  a 
large  hole  made  by  a  shrapnel  ball  in 
the  back  of  a  soldier.  Close  by  was  a 
man  wincing  under  the  pain  of  the 
dressing  of  an  ugly  wound  on  the  arm, 
but  his  spirits  were  equal  to  the  occasion. 
1  It  makes  me  dance,'  he  said  ;  '  we  enjoy 
all  sorts  of  dancing  now/ 

No  anaesthetics  were  used,  not  even 
cocaine.  The  Balkan  soldier  sometimes, 
as  is  notorious,  seems  stolidly  indifferent 
to  pain ;  but  his  sensitiveness,  I  should 
say,  was  in  most  cases  very  great.  It 
is  met,  however,  by  extreme  fortitude. 
They  apparently  prefer  to  have  serious 
operations  without  anaesthetics.  They 
are   terrified    of   losing   a   limb.     I    heard 

68 


1         i 


) 


) 


o 

»— t 

H 

<; 

H 

&< 

s 

O 


<5 


THE  WOUNDED 

one  man  say  to  the  doctor  who  was  pre- 
paring to  take  off  his  gangrenous  arm, 
*  Please  kill  me  rather  than  take  off 
my  arm.  If  I  can't  work  on  my  farm, 
I  would  rather  be  dead.'  They  distrust 
the  doctor,  and  endure  the  utmost  agony, 
so  hoping  to  minimise  the  amputation. 

We  worked  in  a  room  some  twenty 
feet  square,  devoted  all  day  to  eight 
simultaneous  treatments,  each  of  which 
should  have  had  a  room  and  antiseptic 
apparatus  to  itself. 

It  was  the  class-room  of  an  old  Turkish 
school,  and  between  its  two  low  windows 
the  teacher's  platform,  under  the  Sultan's 
monogram  (which  no  one  had  had  time 
to  pull  down),  further  reduced  the  space. 
Except  for  those  nearest  the  windows, 
it  was  impossible  clearly  to  see  the  wound 
one  had  to  dress.  At  dusk,  when  only 
a  small  oil  lamp  was  lit,  all  were  reduced 
to  the  same  necessity  of  doing  delicate 
work  in  semi-darkness.  Opposite  the 
windows  a  sentry  held  the  door,  at  which 
a  dense  crowd  of  men  hardly  fit  to  stand 
waited  for  hours  for  their  turn  to  enter. 

69 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

As  we  finished  one  dressing  after  another, 
the  man  gave  his  name  to  a  clerk  and 
limped  out.  A  fresh  case  was  then  ad- 
mitted. Bent  often  with  pain,  each  would 
begin  trying  to  pull  off  the  upper  or 
nether  garments,  stiff  with  dried  blood, 
which  concealed  the  hole  or  gash  to  be 
dressed.  Impeded  by  broken  fingers  or 
a  broken  limb,  and  with  no  one  to  help, 
the  wretched  creatures  fumbled  slowly. 
Succeeding  at  last,  they  would  stand 
patiently,  sometimes  almost  completely 
naked,  among  the  crowd  of  busy  men 
and  women,  perhaps  for  twenty  minutes, 
till  their  turn  came. 

These  conditions  imply  no  deficiency 
on  the  part  of  the  Bulgarians  concerned. 
Every  man  and  woman  was  busy.  The 
whole  nation  was  overtaxed.  It  was 
inevitable  that  work  should  be  largely 
amateur  and  under-manned.  In  the  main 
the  situation  was  normal  to  all  war. 

On  the  part  of  the  wounded  I  saw 
no  sign  of  complaint,  only  once  of  pain 
wilfully  exaggerated  to  attract  sympathy. 
There  was  marvellous  patience ;  no  thought 

70 


THE  WOUNDED 

of  claiming  the  kindness  due  to  sacrifice  ; 
continual  signs  of  gratitude,  obviously 
sincere. 

For  us  amateur  dressers,  the  pro- 
cedure was  as  follows  :  We  put  on  one 
of  the  white  overcoats,  snatched  one 
of  the  lumps  of  cotton-wool  which  lay 
in  a  dish  of  '  sublimate '  (a  transparent 
fluid  of  whose  exact  chemistry  we  were 
all  ignorant),  selected  a  wound,  and  began 
to  wash  it.  At  first,  finding  the  men 
wince,  I  tried  to  spare  them  :  however 
gentle  an  amateur  may  wish  to  be,  his 
clumsiness  must  give  extra  pain.  But 
the  doctor  hurried  up,  begged  me  not  to 
waste  time,  seized  the  wool,  and  scrubbed 
the  raw  flesh  as  with  a  scrubbing-brush  ; 
then  showed  me  how  to  rub  in  iodine 
(almost  as  painfully  caustic  as  the  sub- 
limate), digging  it  in  with  a  small  stick 
tipped  with  cotton-wool.  Fatigue  and 
monotony  soon  dispelled  all  sympathetic 
feeling  in  us,  and  I  was  able  to  work 
as  brutally  as  the  best.  Following  the 
sublimate  and  the  iodine,  one  took  gauze, 
cotton-wool,  and  bandage  from  the  table ; 

7i 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

when  a  compress  was  needed,  the  woman 
who  kept  this  table  supplied  cut  oil-silk 
of  the  right  size.  Bandaging  is  a  mystery 
that  one  acquires  with  gratifying  speed. 
I  had  at  least  the  satisfaction  of  observing 
that  the  bandages  which  I  removed 
showed  even  less  skill  than  those  with 
which  I  replaced  them. 

The  doctors  at  the  front  believed  in 
plugging  the  deep  holes  in  the  flesh, 
and  among  the  cruellest  tortures  was 
the  pulling  out  of  these  plugs.  A  week's 
soaking  and  drying  with  blood  had  made 
them  one  solid  mass  with  the  bandage. 
There  was  no  time  to  unfasten  gently, 
nor  any  sterilised  fluid  for  softening.  No 
washing  was  done.  Smashed  hands  were 
left  with  a  mass  of  dirt  all  round  the  wound. 
When  a  finger-end  was  shot  through,  so 
that  its  shape  was  like  a  two-pronged 
fork,  it  was  just  brushed  with  iodine  and 
bandaged  over. 

Often  a  bullet  was  embedded,  generally 
in  the  back  or  leg.  Then  a  medical  student, 
a  girl  of  about  twenty  years,  had  her 
reward  for  the  long  hours  of  toil.     The 

72 


THE  WOUNDED 

doctor  was  amused  to  let  her  enjoy  her- 
self. The  man  was  brought  near  the 
light,  and  the  knife  probed  for  the  ball. 
Cries  and  groans  filled  the  air  till  it  was 
gripped  and  extracted.  Anaesthetics  were 
scouted,  but  sometimes  a  glass  of  cognac 
checked  the  noise  for  a  moment. 

A  case  of  deep-seated  injury,  for 
instance  a  ball  embedded  in  the  coccyx, 
and  excruciatingly  painful  to  the  sciatic 
nerve,  would  be  reserved  for  foreign 
Red  Cross  surgeons  many  days'  journey 
further  on.  But  problems  more  ghastly 
for  the  amateur  were  disposed  of  at  once. 
There  were  lacerations  by  dum-dum 
bullets.  It  is  said  that  a  hard-nosed 
bullet  sometimes  expands  on  striking 
a  bone,  so  that  lacerations  by  expansion 
need  not  prove  the  Turks  guilty  of  a 
breach  of  primary  international  honour. 
Foreign  military  attaches,  however,  picked 
up  Turkish  dum-dum  ammunition,  and 
nothing  else  could  have  expanded  in  soft 
flesh  with  the  dreadful  results  that  came 
in  a  few  cases  to  our  surgery.  One,  for 
instance,    had,    in    traversing    the    upper 

73 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

arm,  spread  so  as  to  make  the  exit  wound 
quite  five  inches  long.     Another,  entering 
the  inner  side  of  the  thigh,  caused  on  the 
outer  side  a  hole  quite  fourteen  inches  in 
length,   the    flesh   protruding    in  separate 
oblong  masses,  mangled  together,  the  skin 
apparently  all  carried  away.     In  attempt- 
ing to  treat  such  a  wound,  what  seemed 
to  be  required  was  an  immense  courage. 
I  have  never  known   any  moral  test   so 
severe    as    the    sense    of   shattering    diffi- 
culty to  be  faced.     A  much  slighter  dum- 
dum wound  was  in  the  hand.     In  the  palm 
was  the  tiny  entrance  hole  ;    at  the  back 
of  the  hand   the   core  of  the  bullet   had 
splintered  the  metacarpal  bone  which  con- 
nects the  first  finger  with  the  wrist  ;    but 
round  the  course  taken  by  this  core  the  soft 
lead  seemed  to  have  sprayed  so  quickly 
that  in  a  flight  of  one  inch  it  had  spread 
to  a  circle  more  than  an  inch  wide,  carry- 
ing   away    all   this    extent    of   sinew   and 
flesh,    and    leaving    a    cavernous    hollow 
across    which    the    jagged    ends    of    bone 
met  unevenly.     The  task  was  to  cut  off 

74 


THE  WOUNDED 

these  loose  ends  and  clean  the  hole.  The 
man,  who  fell  to  my  lot,  waited  in  extreme 
pain  for  fully  ten  minutes,  with  the  wound 
open,  till  the  doctor  fetched  his  long 
forceps  and  gripped  the  end  of  the  bone 
connecting  with  the  finger.  All  his 
strength  failed  to  cut  it.  The  man  half 
swooning,  as  the  machinery  of  the  knuckles 
was  twisted  to  and  fro,  we  gave  him 
brandy.  The  tension  grew  intolerable  as 
the  minutes  passed.  At  last,  the  instru- 
ment proving  unequal  to  cutting  through 
direct,  the  doctor  was  obliged  to  break 
the  bone  instead,  finally  bending  it  off  as 
one  breaks  a  stick,  the  flesh  almost 
tearing  as  the  knuckle  and  first  finger 
were  twisted  from  their  alignment. 

The  more  ruthlessly  and  quickly  we 
toiled,  the  larger  seemed  the  crowd  still 
needing  our  services.  The  air  grew  fouler, 
the  heat  more  intolerable,  the  crush  more 
annoying,  the  smell  of  gangrenous  and 
exposed  flesh  more  disgusting.  We  worked 
with  brutal  haste,  but  never  could  we  get 
through  that  endless  queue  at  the  door. 

75 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

The  pathos  and  cruelty  of  the  situation 
seemed  all  the  more  evident  to  the  mind, 
because  it  had  ceased  to  touch  the  feelings. 

Here  were  human  beings  of  a  fine  type, 
peasants  of  pure  blood,  in  the  prime  of  life, 
remarkably  free  from  immoral  disease,  of 
a  courage  and  endurance  that  makes  them 
renowned  as  fighters  throughout  Europe, 
with  a  quality  of  mind  and  body  unique 
among  the  peasants  of  the  world.  As  one 
worked  on,  the  mind  recollected,  with 
impartial  coldness,  the  immense  value  of 
each  of  these  creatures,  beings  to  whom  the 
expression  '  Made  in  the  image  of  God ' 
might  quite  philosophically  be  applied. 

And  here,  at  closest  quarters,  by  the 
insistent  impact  of  sight  and  smell  and 
hearing  and  touch,  we  realised  this  image 
smashed  ;  its  capacity  for  work,  thought, 
fatherhood,  happiness,  destroyed  by  result- 
ant ill-health ;  not  in  one  case  alone, 
such  as  would  in  peace  time  in  a  case 
of  misfortune  move  a  whole  nation  to 
sympathy,  but  by  scores  and  hundreds 
and  tens  of  thousands. 

76 


CHAPTER  IV 

DEVASTATION 

Kirklisse  quickly  settled  down  to  its 
function  as  the  main  clearing-house  for  the 
transport  of  General  Dimitrieffs  army  and 
for  the  wounded. 

The  mosque  by  the  side  of  the  steep 
main  road  had  the  appearance  of  a  ware- 
house at  the  docks  ;  the  sacks  and  ammuni- 
tion boxes  were  piled  in  it  almost  as  high 
as  the  tall  stair  which,  for  Moslem  worship, 
culminates  in  the  pulpit.  The  temptation 
to  use  the  most  solid  and  fireproof  building 
in  the  town  was  too  great.  It  overcame 
all  considerations  of  respect  for  religious 
feeling  and  desire  to  avoid  the  charge  of 
desecration.  It  is  only  fair  to  say  that  at 
Lule  Burgas  the  magnificent  mosque  and 
the  courtyard  with  its  lovely  stone  colonnade 

77 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

were  well  protected.  I  had  been  shocked 
by  the  failure  to  protect  other  mosques, 
and  was  somewhat  relieved  to  find  that  at 
Lule  Burgas,  while  the  Christians  were  pre- 
venting desecration,  it  was  the  Turks  them- 
selves who  before  their  flight  had  used  their 
own  church  as  a  military  store.  Their  gun- 
carriages  stood  round  the  court.  It  was 
Mahomedan  indifference  to  Mahomedan 
sacred  places  against  which  the  Christian 
was  now  paradoxically  protesting  by  his 
refusal  to  turn  the  place  to  any  further 
military  account. 

But  at  Chorlu  the  mosque  was  a 
melancholy  sight  :  it  was  neither  revered 
nor  turned  to  use.  Small  boys  were 
climbing  the  pulpit  :  the  chandeliers  lay 
smashed  on  the  ground,  and  hooligans  were 
hurling  from  the  carved  stone  gallery  the 
vast  stores  of  printed  paper  which,  judging 
from  the  litter  of  war,  it  is  the  peculiar 
fashion  of  both  soldiers  and  ecclesiastics 
in  Turkey  to  amass.  I  picked  up  among 
them  an  annotated  copy  of  the  Koran, 
elaborately  written  by  hand.     A  member 

78 


DEVASTATION 

of  the  general's  staff  was  an  expert  in 
Turkish  and  Arabic,  but  so  perfect  was 
the  caligraphy  that  he  could  not  for  the 
moment  be  certain  that  it  was  not  the 
work  of  a  printer. 

The  desecration  of  places  of  worship  is 
a  bigger  feature  of  war  than  we  generally 
imagine.  In  peace  time  the  rudest  feels 
some  respect  for  his  neighbour's  feelings, 
if  not  for  the  unseen  world.  The  very  sight 
of  death  in  any  form  is  unfamiliar  to  us. 
A  dead  dog  is  an  unpleasant  event  ;  even 
the  body  of  a  mouse  by  the  road  commands 
our  attention.  Death  and  blood  are  put 
out  of  sight.  These  things  are  symp- 
toms of  the  refinement  which  grows  with 
ordered  life  and  distinguishes  man  from 
beast.  In  war  time  we  return  to  the  out- 
look of  the  animal  ;  the  desecrated  church, 
the  corpse  in  the  mud,  do  not  even  constitute 
an  object  of  interest;  veneration,  refine- 
ment, and  disgust  have  vanished  from  the 
mind. 

On  November  12  we  left   Kirklisse  for 

79 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

the  front.  To  supply  the  troops  hitherto 
had  meant  transport  in  ox-waggons,  firstly 
from  Yamboli  to  Kirklisse,  which  in  good 
weather  occupied  six  days,  and  then  an  im- 
mensely greater  distance  from  Kirklisse  to 
the  front.  The  railway,  which  from  here 
runs  by  a  branch  line  to  the  main  Turkish 
system,  had  just  been  brought  into  use  by 
the  invaders,  the  abandoned  engines  having 
been  repaired  sufficiently  to  satisfy  the 
needs  of  the  commissariat.  We  travelled 
in  one  of  the  first  trains  which  took  the 
place  of  ox-waggon  transport,  and  covered 
the  distance  in  eight  hours,  which  had 
hitherto  occupied  as  many  days.  Bread 
and  ammunition  filled  most  of  the  train. 
An  ordinary  covered  waggon  was  added, 
which  conveyed  our  six  horses,  two  for  our- 
selves,   one  for   Lieutenant    P of  the 

First  Cavalry  Regiment,  and  three  for  the 
troopers,  kindly  placed  at  our  disposal  by 
the  general  Staff. 

On  such  a  daily  train  the  life  of  the 
army  at  the  front  depended,  and  here 
in    the    vast    province   of    Thrace,    where 

80 


DEVASTATION 

through  fire  and  devastation  the  whole 
of  the  population  seemed  to  have  dis- 
appeared, the  army  constituted,  as  it 
were,  the  entire  human  society  of  the 
country.  The  supply  of  the  army,  day  by 
day,  was  like  a  vast  piece  of  collectivist 
government,  in  which  the  whole  community 
had  embarked  upon  a  gigantic  picnic. 
Seen  from  Kirklisse  itself,  there  was  nothing 
to  introduce  the  idea  of  disorder,  and  in  fine 
weather  the  impression  of  a  great  concerted 
open-air  advance  was  exhilarating  to  a 
degree. 

But  within  300  yards  of  the  station  the 
mind  was  abruptly  brought  back  to  the 
real  nature  of  this  communistic  organisa- 
tion, when  the  train  slowed  down  to  pass 
the  wreckage  of  a  locomotive  and  several 
carriages  lying  below  the  railway  bank. 
On  the  evening  of  Wednesday,  October  23, 
the  famous  stampede  had  taken  place  ; 
Mahmud  Mukhtar  had  caught  the  infection 
and  made  for  the  railway  station.  Accord- 
ing to  the  accounts  of  those  who  saw  what 
passed,  his  determination  to  get  away  at  all 

81  G 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

costs  was  sufficient  further  to  demoralise 
his  men.  It  is  said  that  he  first  demanded 
a  train,  but  the  station  officials  protested 
that  the  line  was  not  clear  ;  he  then 
ordered  the  officer  with  him  to  threaten 
the  engine-driver  with  death  if  he  did  not 
start  at  once.  With  a  revolver  at  his  head, 
the  engine-driver  started  the  train,  which 
was  filled  to  overflowing  with  panic- 
stricken  troops.  Within  five  minutes  it 
ran  into  the  train  coming  up  from  the 
south.  Seven  men  were  killed,  including 
an  officer,  and  large  numbers  were  injured. 
The  Pasha  was  unhurt,  and,  hurrying  back 
to  the  station,  he  was  able  by  renewed 
threats  to  obtain  a  horse-carriage,  in  which 
he  made  good  his  escape. 

The  first  station  south  of  Kirklisse 
is  Kavakli.  Here  the  walls  are  thickly 
dotted  with  bullet  marks.  An  advance- 
guard  action  had  taken  place  around  the 
station ;  a  small  body  of  troops  had, 
by  means  of  the  white  flag,  induced  a 
Bulgarian  officer  to  approach,  and  then 
shot  him  at  close  range.     The  troops  made 

82 


DEVASTATION 

short  work  of  the  offenders  ;  storming  the 
station-house,  they  rushed  upstairs,  where 
the  Turks  had  taken  refuge  in  the  telegraph 
operator's  room.     Not  one  was  left  alive. 

At  each  station  officers  engaged  on 
various  departments  of  organising  work 
got  in  or  out  of  the  train.  I  found  myself 
greeted  by  a  Bulgarian  whom  I  had  known 
in  London.  I  quickly  identified  him  as 
the  former  secretary  of  the  Bulgarian 
Legation  in  Queen's  Gate,  now  turned 
Red  Cross  officer,  and  going  to  the  front 
with  a  field  hospital.  He  was  something 
of  a  politician,  well  known  for  his  advanced 
views.  It  was  interesting  to  hear  his 
account  of  scenes  on  the  battle-field, 
where  he  had  been  busy  with  the  work 
of  collecting  the  wounded  and  the  dead. 
He  had  been  struck  by  the  pathos 
of  a  Turkish  trench  in  which,  so  deadly 
had  been  the  Bulgarian  fire,  the  men 
lay  dead  close  together,  the  whole  length 
of  the  trench,  all  shot  through  the  head. 

We  passed  the  smoke  of  villages  still 
burning,    and    then,    beyond    Baba   Eski, 

83  G  2 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

we  reached  the  junction  with  the  main 
line  at  Mandra. 

Here  the  train  had  been  fired  on  by 
bashibazouks  four  days  before.  A  band 
of  these,  numbering,  it  was  said,  over  a 
thousand,  was  still  operating  from  this  large 
village.  Shortly  after  the  big  battle,  these 
men,  mostly  Mahomedan  Bulgarians,  had 
visited  the  detachment  of  the  invading 
army  at  the  station,  talked  in  Bulgarian, 
said  they  were  Christians,  and  professed 
themselves  friendly.  When  the  troops  had 
been  put  thoroughly  at  their  ease,  and 
left  aside  their  arms,  the  visitors  suddenly 
seized  their  rifles  and  killed  them  all. 

Another  half-hour,  and  we  reached 
Lule  Burgas  station,  distant  several  miles, 
as  Turkish  stations  commonly  are,  from 
the  town.  The  commandant  was  kind, 
and  found  us  good  quarters  with  a  Greek 
merchant.  Neighbours  dropped  in  who 
could  talk  French,  and  supper  was  beguiled 
with  weird  tales  of  the  flight  of  Turkish 
peasants ;  the  panic  of  troops ;  officers 
throwing  off  all  but  their  shirts  in  order 

84 


DEVASTATION 

to  run  quicker  and  further  ;  others  begging 
a  crust  of  bread  from  door  to  door  ;  droll 
Turkish  ruses  defeated  by  Bulgarians  with 
the  aid  of  Greek  residents  who  welcomed 
the  invaders;  everything  tinged  with  the 
brilliance  of  Greek  imagination. 

These  were  non-combatants  whom  the 
war  had  treated  kindly  ;  but  even  from 
their  reports  it  was  easy  to  see  that  few 
had  escaped  so  well.  The  price  of  war 
was  heavy  for  the  villages  round,  and 
one  began  to  realise  its  true  meaning. 
The  main  feature  had  been  (as  it  was 
always  evident  that,  in  a  Balkan  war,  it 
would  be)  the  sacrifice  of  non-combatants. 
Greek  ladies  had  touching  stories  of  their 
village  friends.  A  woman  well  known 
to  our  hostess  was  in  tears.  Her  three 
daughters,  unhappily  born  pretty,  had 
been  taken  away  by  the  Turkish  troops. 

We  saw  in  various  districts  whole 
villages  deserted,  others  destroyed.  No 
sign  of  life  remained.  Outside  the  village, 
however,  we  would  find  lean  dogs  slinking 

85 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

away  with  a  guilty  air.  They  had  finished 
the  best  parts  of  the  dead  horses  and  were 
now  living  on  the  last  food  that  remained. 
A  swarm  of  grey  crows,  such  as  we  know 
in  England  as  'hooded  crows,'  at  one  place 
betrayed  what  the  dogs  were  living  on.  It 
was  a  heap  of  corpses  collected  in  the 
open  field. 

In  two  hours  we  passed  many  villages 
wholly  or  partly  burned.  The  officer  with 
us  rode  steadily  on,  betraying  no  curiosity 
to  examine  what  might  be  left  in  the  ruined 
houses  or  what  had  been  the  course  of 
events.  They  had  no  reference  to  future 
fighting.  They  could  be  ignored.  I  was 
anxious,  however,  to  learn  a  little  more,  and 
stopped  behind,  on  one  occasion,  to  examine 
a  large  village  which  had  been  even  more 
flourishing  than  the  rest.  The  stacks  of 
corn  here  were  not  only  smouldering,  but 
blazing  as  if  lately  fired,  though  they  had 
been  alight  for  more  than  a  week.  Others 
resembled  nothing  so  much  as  slag-heaps, 
the  grey  ash  appearing  quite  dead,  till  on 
approaching  closer  one  found  cracks  through 

86 


DEVASTATION 

which  lurid  red  heat  was  visible,  like  cracks 
in  fresh  lava. 

It  is  sometimes  supposed  that  the 
villages  in  Turkey  are  collections  of  squalid 
huts,  so  that  their  destruction  does  not 
mean  the  same  thing  as  destruction  in 
Europe.  Often,  however,  as  in  this  case, 
the  level  of  comfort  is  not  lower,  but  much 
higher,  than  in  our  English  villages  of 
hired  labourers,  or  among  French  and 
German  peasants. 

The  houses  here  were,  as  everywhere, 
the  dwellings  of  independent  farmers, 
standing  in  ample  space,  with  thorn  hedges 
round  the  enclosure,  with  plenty  of  out- 
houses and  small  barns.  It  was  a  rich 
village,  not  only  with  well-tiled  houses 
and  verandahs,  but  even  with  orna- 
mental gardens,  and  orchards  formally 
planted.  Here,  among  the  surrounding 
ruins  and  expanse  of  ash,  were  frequently 
little  flower-beds,  in  which  marigolds  and 
stocks  were   incongruously  blooming. 

Within  the  houses  almost  everything 
was  destroyed  through  the  collapse  of  the 

87 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

roof,  the  fall  of  the  walls,  and  the  total 
incineration  of  all  wood-work.  Occasionally, 
however,  some  utensils  had  been  outside  the 
house,  and  so  remained  unburnt.  An  im- 
pression of  the  comfortable  life  which  had 
disappeared  was  given  by  kitchen  utensils, 
even  by  sewing  machines,  and  by  the 
baby's  cradle. 

We  separated  to  look  inside  houses  still 
standing,  and  I  heard  a  call  from  the 
lieutenant  that  he  had  made  an  interesting 
find.  In  a  comfortable  spacious  kitchen 
were  remains  of  various  European  pro- 
ducts, the  tinned  meats  of  Strasbourg,  and 
the  baking-powder  of  England  ;  but  what 
had  attracted  the  lieutenant's  attention 
was  a  profusion  of  cartridges  on  the  floor, 
evidently  fired  from  a  small  window  over- 
looking the  valley.  It  was  quite  a  museum 
of  the  ammunition  of  the  last  forty  years, 
going  back  to  one  of  the  earliest  types  of 
percussion-cap  rifle  cartridge.  Treasured 
by  some  peasant  family  for  generations 
past,  they  had  now  been  used  by  bashi- 
bazouks    against    non-combatants.      With 

88 


DEVASTATION 

their  help  the  Turk  had  performed  his 
threat,  that  if  driven  from  Europe  he 
would  shed  innocent  blood  first. 

Where  were  the  villagers — Turk  or 
Christian — who  had  so  lately  called  these 
houses  *  home '  ?  No  one  could  tell.  A 
large  number  were  dead  ;  some  lay  un- 
buried,  others  in  large  fresh-dug  graves ; 
but  for  the  most  part  they  had  put  together 
such  belongings  as  would  go  into  the 
family  ox-waggon,  placed  the  babies  on 
the  top,  and  trekked  away. 

As  for  the  Christians,  it  was  supposed 
that  they  had  found  shelter  in  neighbouring 
villages,  unburnt  or  only  partially  destroyed. 
The  inhabitants  of  these,  at  the  best  ex- 
tremely poor,  and  with  nothing  to  spare  for 
others,  in  a  normal  winter  might  perhaps 
keep  the  strangers  from  starvation  for  a  time. 
But  all  this  was  conjecture.  Their  where- 
abouts remained  a  mystery.  For  the  whole 
machinery  of  society  was  broken  down. 
All  the  features  of  a  civilised  country 
were    gone.      There    were    no    posts,    no 

89 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

markets,  no  police,  no  law  courts,  none  of 
the  machinery  of  order.  Even  the  features 
of  a  community  of  savage  villages  had  dis- 
appeared, for  human  beings  had  no  shelter 
and  could  not  move  with  safety  about 
the  country.  Therefore  the  dissemination 
of  news  did  not  even  reach  the  level  of 
rumour.  Travelling  of  any  kind  was  unsafe, 
and  the  whole  of  non-combatant  society 
cowered  out  of  sight  in  fear  and   hunger. 

So  much  for  the  Christians. 

But  the  larger  number  of  sufferers  were 
undoubtedly  Turks.  It  was  the  universal 
belief  that  the  troops  of  the  allies  would 
avenge  their  wrongs  by  slaughtering  the 
Mahomedans.  A  universal  exodus  took 
place  from  Turkish  villages.  The  dismal 
procession  of  family  ox- waggons  for  the  most 
part  found  its  way  to  Constantinople  and 
other  ports  on  the  Marmora  or  the  ^Egean. 
Some  were  shipped  to  Asia,  some  remained 
in  hiding  in  the  European  towns,  many 
died  of  cholera.  It  is  hard  to  say  which 
were  the  most  unfortunate. 

For  the  relief  either  of  Turks  or  Christians 

90 


DEVASTATION 

no  means  existed — for  social  and  economic 
organisation  had  disappeared.  The  army 
alone  represented  the  social  organism.  It 
is  true  that  civil  prefects  arrived  after  long 
delay  at  the  towns,  but  of  necessity  they 
could  effect  little,  overshadowed  by  the 
military  regime.  When  my  brother  and  I, 
as  agents  of  the  Balkan  War  Relief  Fund, 
discussed  with  them  the  question  of  dealing 
with  hunger  and  cold  in  the  villages,  they 
confessed  their  total  inability  to  make  any 
suggestion  whatever.  Even  the  heads  of  the 
religious  communities,  which  in  Turkey 
form  the  most  important  framework  of 
society,  were  without  knowledge.  Still  less 
could  a  new  set  of  administrators,  them- 
selves undermanned,  survey  their  districts, 
or  form  even  the  roughest  estimate  of  the 
numbers  and  needs  of  the  population. 

No  one  could  travel  except  as  part 
of  the  military  machine.  This  machine, 
already  overtaxed  and  strained  to  the 
utmost  to  conduct  the  war,  had  not  a  man 
to  spare  for  escorting  prefects  or  establish- 
ing administration  ;   and  even  considerable 

9i 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

towns,  not  to  speak  of  the  villages,  re- 
mained for  many  weeks  without  any 
representative   of  law  and   order. 

In  such  conditions  every  criminal  is 
free  to  plunder  his  neighbours ;  this  is 
the  normal  condition  of  an  occupied 
country  in  time  of  war  unless  the  conqueror 
has  forces  to  spare  for  the  rapid  estab- 
lishment of  government.  In  the  Franco- 
German  war,  which  represented  the  high- 
est standard  yet  attained  in  this  respect, 
a  long  period  elapsed  before  anarchy  was 
overcome.  In  such  circumstances  it  is 
not  strange  that  ugly  deeds  were  done 
by  non-combatants.  Whichever  side  had 
the  upper  hand  took  advantage  of  the 
opportunity  of  wiping  off  old  scores.  The 
Turks  did  their  worst  before  retiring. 
The  bands  of  local  rebels,  on  the  other 
hand,  long  ago  organised  to  resist  the 
Turk,  took  vengeance,  it  must  be  feared, 
in  similar  fashion,  when  their  turn  came. 
Such  a  welter  of  brutality  and  suffering 
had   always  been   foreseen   by  those  who 

92 


DEVASTATION 

knew  the  country,  if  a  way  could  not 
be  found  by  the  Great  Powers  to  effect 
reform.  They  alone  by  force  majeure 
could  act  as  the  world's  police,  and  prevent 
the  inferno. 

If  any  political  moral  is  to  be  drawn 
from  outrage,  the  guiding  factor  must 
be  sought  in  the  conduct  of  the  two  races 
in  their  organised  aspect  ;  that  is  to  say, 
by  the  behaviour  of  their  troops.  It 
remains  to  be  proved  that  regular  troops 
of  the  allies,  or  even  irregular  bands, 
under  the  command  of  regular  officers, 
have   been   guilty   of   atrocious   acts. 

I  am  able  to  state  from  personal 
knowledge  that  outrages  charged  against 
regular  troops  of  the  allies  were  the  work 
of  irregulars  and  did  in  fact  cease  when 
the  troops  arrived  on  the  scene  ;  and  that 
many  of  the  perpetrators  were  punished. 

As  to  the  troops,  however,  on  the 
Turkish  side,  though  evidence  is  of  necessity 
equally  scarce,  I  found  proof  of  the  mis- 
conduct of  regular  troops  which  was  con- 
vincing to  my  own  mind.     It   would  be 

93 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

very  unlike  Turkish  history  in  the  past 
if  humanity  had  suddenly  been  impressed 
upon  the  mentality  of  Turkish  troops 
by  their  officers,  or  even  on  that  of  the 
officers  themselves.  It  is  on  record  by 
the  European  officers  attached  to  the 
gendarmerie  in  Macedonia  from  1905  to 
1908,  that  they  saw  the  most  horrible  out- 
rages committed  and  women  slaughtered 
by  Turkish  troops,  that  they  themselves 
protested  to  the  officers,  and  that  the 
officers  declined  to  interfere. 

Outrages  have  been  advertised  ad 
nauseam,  in  order  to  manufacture  politi- 
cal sympathies.  The  real  deduction  to 
be  drawn  from  them  was  not  that  either 
government  was  to  blame  (for  outrages 
are  the  incident  of  every  war),  but  that  an 
immense  world  of  misery  remained  to  be 
relieved.  Great  efforts  to  this  end  were 
made  by  the  Balkan  War  Relief  Fund 
in  Eastern  Macedonia  and  Thrace  and  the 
Macedonian  Relief  Fund  further  west. 
Those    who    concerned    themselves    with 

94 


DEVASTATION 

Balkan  atrocities  could  prove  their  sin- 
cerity, not  by  attacks  on  the  allies,  but 
by  subscriptions  to  these  Funds,  for  which 
appeals  were  issued,  notably  by  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  and  by  the  Lord 
Mayor  of  London. 

To  illustrate  the  degree  of  misery 
to  be  dealt  with  I  may  quote  Mr. 
Wilkie  Young,  British  Vice-Consul  at  Philip- 
popolis,  who  most  kindly  undertook  to 
act  as  an  agent  of  relief.  He  wrote  '  In 
some  villages  only  women  and  children 
are  left ;  other  villages  have  lost  all 
their  animals  ;  and  both  these  categories 
have  consequently  no  means  of  sending 
down  to  the  towns  for  supplies,  even  if 
money  were  placed  in  their  hands.  To 
these,  therefore,  help  must  be  brought  in 
kind.  Other  localities,  within  reach  of  sup- 
plies, can  fend  for  themselves  if  given 
the  wherewithal  to  buy.  Approximately 
every  pound  sterling  should  suffice  to 
keep  one  hundred  adults  for  one  day  in 
this  district.' 

My  brother,  the  Revd.  Harold  Buxton, 

95 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

who  established  the  organisation  of  relief 
in  the  Drama  district,  explained  the 
situation  as  follows  : 

'  We  who  have  come  straight  from 
Macedonia  must  hasten  to  give  you  some 
picture  of  the  appalling  conditions  which 
prevail  in  many  districts  there  as  a  direct 
result  of  the  war.  Unless  you  have  actually 
seen  it,  you  can  hardly  realise  what  war 
means,  inevitably,  to  the  non-combatant 
population — the  old  men,  the  women,  and 
the  children.  The  men  at  least  have  the 
glory  of  fighting ;  and,  moreover,  they 
have  the  first  claim  on  the  necessaries  of 
life  available.  The  sacrifices  imposed  on 
the  non-combatants  in  many  cases  exceed 
those  which  are  made  by  the  soldiery. 
Suspense  and  constant  dread  ;  the  atmo- 
sphere of  passion,  strife  and  bloodshed ; 
nakedness,  exhaustion  and  lack  of  food 
and  shelter — these  are  their  obvious  and 
inevitable  sufferings.  These  things  must 
continue  until  peace  is  declared;  some 
of  them  must  continue  during  the  winter 

96 


DEVASTATION 

months,  except  so  far  as  they  are  relieved 
by  the  help  sent  from  England.  It  is 
for  the  needs  of  the  non-combatants, 
the  innocent  victims  of  war,  that  our 
Fund  has  been  raised  and  is  now  working. 

'  Captain  Masterman,  Mr.  OrlorT,  and  I 
reached  Drama  on  December  13,  after 
four  days'  journey  through  the  moun- 
tains from  Sofia.  We  found  the  large 
garrison  of  troops  sufficiently  supplied ; 
but  as  for  the  mass  of  the  civil  population, 
famine  stared  them  in  the  face.  The 
marvel  is  that  they  live  at  all,  in  view 
of  the  fact  that  all  food  supplies  are  com- 
mandeered by  the  Government.  But,  no 
doubt,  some  houses  had  their  secret  stores 
hidden  away  until  after  the  establishment 
of  order,  and  those  are  now  brought  out 
and  shared  by  the  residents  with  their 
"  refugee  "    visitors. 

'  The  soldiers  get  one  loaf  a  day.  The 
first  thing  I  noticed  in  Drama  was  a 
"  Tommy "  sharing  his  loaf  with  some 
hungry  Turkish  children — a  generous  im- 
pulse,  to   part   with  any   of  his   precious 

97  h 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

store  !  But  a  hungry  child  is  not  to  be 
resisted.  Those  very  children  had  come 
perhaps  a  journey  of  fifty  to  a  hundred 
miles  on  foot,  from  Nevrokop  or  further 
north,  flying  before  the  advancing  army. 
Here  they  were,  after  that  desperate  flight, 
with  or  without  their  parents,  lodged 
in  miserable  tenements  already  over- 
crowded, treasuring  the  scanty  garments 
that  remained  to  them.  This  is  the  prob- 
lem of  fugitives,  which,  though  present 
in  every  war,  has  been  specially  acute 
in  the  Balkans.  Twenty-five  thousand 
Turkish  peasants  poured  into  the  town 
early  in  November,  hoping  to  keep  behind 
their  own  army.  But  when  the  town 
surrendered  they  could  go  no  further,  and 
were  literally  amazed  to  find  that  instead 
of  being  massacred  they  were  guaranteed 
security  and  protection  by  the  Bulgarian 
commandant.  Most  of  these  refugees 
have  now  gone  back  to  their  villages, 
but  a  large  number  from  Nevrokop  still 
remain.  Our  relief  is  being  given  to  from 
four    hundred   to   five    hundred     families 

98 


DEVASTATION 

in  Drama,  very  carefully  selected  as  being 
the  most  desperate  cases. 

'  With  regard  to  the  villages,  a  typical 
case  is  that  of  Plevna,  about  five 
miles  from  Drama.  The  peasants  were 
Bulgarian  and  Greek,  and  lived  mainly 
on  tobacco  cultivation  in  the  surrounding 
fields.  On  the  approach  of  the  Bulgarian 
army  the  village  was  entirely  destroyed 
by  the  order  (it  is  said)  of  a  Turkish  bey 
from  Drama.  One  hundred  and  seventy 
houses  were  burnt  out ;  210  stacks  were  also 
destroyed  by  fire,  and  69  persons  were  killed. 
Nearly  160  families  are  left  without  shelter 
or  change  of  clothing.  Under  the  former 
regime  the  Turkish  bey  had  the  right  to 
collect  revenue  in  kind  from  the  villagers, 
and  a  large  deposit  of  grain  was  thus, 
fortunately,  left  in  a  store  just  outside  the 
village.  The  Bulgarian  army  requisitioned 
a  considerable  portion  of  it,  but  15,000  kilos 
were  distributed — enough  to  supply  the 
people  for  six  weeks.  When  Mr.  Orloff  and 
I  visited  this  place  near  the  end  of 
December,  we  found  the  store  nearly  run 

99  h  2 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

out.  However,  with  our  limited  funds  we 
could  only  give  them  the  alternative  of 
clothing  or  flour  ;  we  could  not  promise 
both.  They  decided  for  clothing,  and  this 
I  sent  out  from  Drama  on  December  27. 
The  Prefect  has  promised  to  bring  the  most 
needy  into  the  town  later  on,  when  the 
weather  is  more  severe,  and  will  find  them 
shelter  for  two  months. 

'  Destruction  has  been  due  partly  to  the 
Turkish  army  in  retreat,  in  its  desire  to 
prevent  stores  falling  into  the  hands  of  the 
Bulgarians,  and  partly  to  the  uncontrolled 
"  bands,"  who  seem  to  have  destroyed 
property  without  reason. 

'  In  one  house  we  found  the  inmates  in  a 
state  of  the  greatest  want  and  discomfort. 
Two  families  of  refugees  had  demanded 
space  and  shelter  ;  the  women  were  crying 
bitterly.  No  wonder  !  Accustomed  to  the 
utmost  seclusion,  one  can  hardly  imagine 
the  horrors  which  this  crowding  and  pub- 
licity must  mean  to  them.  Elsewhere  we 
found  two  little  boys  who  had  been  left  as 
orphans  or  forgotten  in  the  mad  panic  of 

100 


DEVASTATION 

retreat,  unclaimed,  yet  thrown  back  as  if 
by  chance  from  the  sea  of  destruction  which 
had  almost  swallowed  them/ 

We  spent  a  day  riding  out  of  Lule 
Burgas,  some  four  hours  westward  towards 
Baba  Eski,  and  visiting  the  village  of 
Alapli.  Fine  houses  of  prosperous  peasants 
stood  in  ruins  on  every  side.  The  church, 
as  frequently  in  this  part  of  Turkey,  had 
been  lately  rebuilt  in  stone  of  rather 
massive  workmanship.  Here,  it  was  said, 
the  population  had  been  induced  to  take 
refuge,  and  had  then,  as  in  the  historical 
case  of  the  Bulgarian  atrocities  of  1876,  been 
deliberately  burnt  to  death.  Roof,  pulpit, 
altar,  screen,  pictures,  human  bodies  (if 
such  had  been  there) — all  were  reduced 
to  a  dead  level  of  grey  ash,  above  which 
nothing  remained  except  the  twisted  forms 
of  the  iron  crosses  and  a  pile  of  finely  cut 
glass,  where  the  chandeliers,  so  prominent  in 
orthodox  churches,  had  fallen  from  the  roof. 

Not  all  the  houses  in  the  village  were 
burnt,    though     the     sickening     smell     of 

101 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

smouldering     walls     and     furniture     was 
universal.     We    ate    some    lunch    in    the 
verandah  of  a  typical  peasant's  house,  a 
pleasant   place   with   tiled   roof   and   out- 
buildings.    An  extremely  pretty  girl  about 
three  years  old  played  beside  us.     It  was 
hardly  possible  to  realise  that  many  such 
children,  and  some  younger  still,  had  here, 
on  this  very  spot,  a  few  days  before,  been 
butchered    in    cold    blood.     Turkish    bar- 
barities seldom  follow  any  ordered  plan, 
but   here    more   thought   than   usual  was 
displayed,  in  that  the  troops  took   pains 
to   slaughter   those  symbols    of    Christian 
infidelity — the  swine.     The  human  bodies 
already  lay  buried  in  the  cemetery  over- 
looking the  village,    but   the   carcases    of 
pigs  still  lay  about  the  open  spaces,  and  in 
the  wicker  enclosures   which  do  duty  for 
pigsties. 

Nearer  Lule  Burgas  lies  the  village  of 
Aivali ;  here  the  Turkish  troops  had  with- 
drawn at  the  approach  of  a  Bulgarian 
cavalry  reconnaissance,  and  the  villagers, 

102 


DEVASTATION 

entirely  Greek,  expressed  their  feelings  by 
ringing  the  church  bells.  The  cavalry  had 
occasion  to  leave  the  village,  and  the  Turks 
returned.  About  November  3  the  English 
papers  published  a  hideous  account  of 
the  massacres  which  followed.  We  had 
occasion  to  testify  that  unhappily  these 
reports  were  only  too  correct.  Not  only 
had  killing  on  a  large  scale  taken  place,  but 
numbers  of  women  and  children  were  left 
wounded.  Crouching  by  the  fire  in  the  first 
house  that  we  entered  were  two  women, 
apparently  unable  to  move.  They  had 
terrible  gashes  in  the  throat,  and  could  not 
lift  their  heads  without  torture.  Another 
woman  was  wounded  on  the  head.  From 
the  next  house  that  we  approached  a  figure 
stepped  into  the  verandah,  whose  appear- 
ance seemed  at  a  distance  to  indicate  some 
dreadful  disease.  It  was  a  girl  of  seventeen 
or  eighteen,  whose  evident  good  looks  had 
inspired  the  Asiatics  with  the  idea  of  dis- 
figuring without  killing  her.  Dreadful 
cavities  on  each  side  of  the  nose  made  it 
evident  that  blank  cartridge  had  been  fired 

103 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

with  the  muzzle  close  to  the  face.  The 
wounds,  then  nearly  a  fortnight  old,  had 
never  been  dressed,  and  the  flesh  re- 
mained in  irregular  masses  still  black 
with  the  powder  of  the  rifle  charge. 
Other  and  more  dreadful  deeds  had  been 
done,  which  I  cannot  bring  myself  to 
record.  One,  however,  I  felt  bound  to 
telegraph  to  the  London  press,  because 
the  perpetration  of  atrocities  is  the 
fundamental  argument  for  reform  in 
Turkey  and  must  not  be  ignored  or  for- 
gotten till  the  frontiers  of  Turkish  rule 
are  finally  settled.  Let  me  minimise 
description  by  quoting  from  my  telegram  • 
'  Saw  husband  of  woman  whose  unborn 
child  was  dismembered/  We  were  reluct- 
antly driven  to  accept  the  evidence  for 
the  occurrence  of  this  tragedy  as  stated. 
But  words  are  not  needed.  It  is  our 
duty  to  think. 

These  atrocities  were  not  the  work 
of  irregulars  alone.  A  melancholy  proof 
of  this  appeared,  for  instance,  in  two 
bullet  wounds  through  the  leg  of  a  small 

104 


. 


•  Vl  ' ' 


. 

.  J  . 

i 

4 

*W- 

fc-..*1 


o«* 


A 


GREEK    PEASANT   WOMEN    WOUNDED    BY    TURKISH    TROOPS. 


THE    BURNT    CHURCH    AT    ALAPLI. 


DEVASTATION 

child,  certainly  made,  as  I  saw  myself, 
by  the  small-bore  rifle  of  the  Turkish 
regular. 

For  the  most  part  the  wounds  remained 
undressed,  though  at  the  very  moment 
of  our  visit  a  field  hospital  contingent 
was  passing  through  the  village  in  ox- 
waggons,  on  its  way  to  the  front. 

War  adds  a  hundredfold  to  the  sufferings 
of  non-combatants,  for  whose  needs,  even 
in  normal  times,  the  supply  of  doctors 
is  not  excessive  ;  it  demands  the  devo- 
tion of  the  entire  medical  service  to  the 
combatants  alone.  It  seemed  to  us 
monstrous  that  though  the  plight  of  these 
wounded  women  was  known  in  the  town 
of  Lule  Burgas,  not  five  miles  off,  nothing 
had  been  done  for  them  by  the  comman- 
dant. The  very  doctors  who  saw  them 
and  described  them  to  us  had  neglected 
them,  as  one  neglects  a  moth  in  the  candle. 
We  could  do  no  more  than  leave  some 
money  with  the  priest  and  the  relatives 
in  charge,  and  express  our  feelings  freely 
to   the   commandant  ;     but   no   doubt   in 

105 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

vain  ;  for  such  is  war.  It  breeds 
indifference.  To  the  men  employed  in 
it,  callousness  is  not  only  natural,  it 
is  their  duty.  Not  a  moment's  energy 
or  thought  must  be  spared  from  the 
supreme  need  of  winning  the  war.  Here 
was  a  country  torn  throughout  its  length 
with  misery  in  quality  and  quantity  un- 
paralleled ;  yet  even  for  us,  concerned 
with  relief  funds,  the  agony  of  these 
people  was  like  a  tiresome  intrusion,  a 
nuisance  which  distracted  us  from  the 
point  of  view  of  our  soldier  companions. 
Such  is  the  mental  distortion  of  war. 


106 


CHAPTER  V 

THE    HOME    COUNTRY 

The  soldiers  at  the  front  entered  upon 
the  war  with  dogged  determination.  They 
were  in  an  ideal  state  of  mind  for  a 
national  combat.  They  were  full  of  dash, 
yet  cool-headed;  determined  to  avenge 
their  nation's  wrongs,  yet  not  bitter  with 
hatred.  Bulgarian  reserve,  both  in  men 
and  women,  stood  the  supreme  strain.  It 
was  a  point  of  honour  as  the  regiments 
marched  from  the  capital  that  no  tears 
should  be  shed.  Nothing  could  have  been 
more  different  to  the  tearful  demonstrations 
or  the  forced,  and  sometimes  alcoholic, 
hilarity  which  marked  the  departure  of 
some  contingents  from  London  or  Paris 
in  recent  wars.  It  was  enough  that 
flowers  should  be  carried  in  the  muzzles 

107 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

of  the  rifles  ;  there  was  nothing  else  to 
mark  the  difference  between  starting  for 
manoeuvres  and  starting  for  the  great 
national  sacrifice. 

When  I  arrived  at  the  scene  of  war,  I 
found  even  the  wounded  men  in  hospital 
still  full  of  fighting  spirit.  Their  thoughts 
were  with  the  army  at  the  front ;  they 
were  longing  to  return.  It  was  evident 
that  family  and  home  occupied  only  a 
moderate  share  of  their  attention. 

But  three  weeks  later,  fatigue  had 
told  on  them.  The}7  had  performed 
unparalleled  feats  of  endurance.  Some 
had  fought  continuously  for  the  first 
eight  days  of  the  war  ;  some  had  then 
marched  sixty  miles  in  two  days  and  at 
once  joined  the  fight  on  the  morrow.  Most 
of  them  had,  with  inadequate  food,  fought 
the  great  battle  at  Lule  Burgas,  lasting 
five  days,  immediately  after  a  period  when 
they  had  been  without  supplies.  They 
had  then  pressed  on  through  the  rain 
and  the  heavv  mud  into  the  Constanti- 
nople  peninsula,  dragging  artillery  through 

108 


THE  HOME  COUNTRY 

quagmires,  sticking  fast  and  sometimes 
carrying  the  guns  by  hand.  It  was  no 
wonder  that  at  the  end  they  succumbed 
to  dysentery  and  something  very  like 
cholera.  Enthusiasm  could  not  last 
longer,  and  after  the  fight  at  Chatalja,  a 
different  spirit  prevailed.  Men  who  re- 
turned wounded  from  that  struggle  could 
hardly  be  recognised  as  of  the  same  material 
as  those  whom  I  had  seen  similarly  wounded 
from  the  early  battles.  Their  talk  was  of 
getting  home,  the  excitement  of  war  had 
spent  itself  and  left  the  mind  free  to  dwell 
on  their  normal  interests — their  farms  and 
their  families. 

And  indeed  the  home  country  needed 
thinking  about.  The  strain  imposed  by 
the  war  on  every  family  in  the  land  was 
evident  even  to  the  traveller  on  the  rail- 
way, or  to  the  merest  visitor  to  Belgrade, 
Athens,  or  Sofia.  In  the  supreme  crisis  of 
their  history  the  Balkan  nations  displayed 
a  spirit  which  would  have  done  credit 
to  the  oldest  and  most  educated  state. 

109 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

Their  capitals  have  at  all  times  an 
aspect  of  reality,  industry,  and  sim- 
plicity. There  is  little  needless  wealth 
to  show,  and  nothing  which,  in  the 
West,  would  be  called  luxury.  Everyone 
is  a  worker,  and  everyone  a  serious  poli- 
tician. There  are  no  drones,  and  none  who 
spend  their  lives  in  the  pleasures,  refine- 
ments, luxuries,  vices,  the  idle  amusements 
of  the  great  cities  of  Europe.  The  buildings 
represent  utility,  means  fairly  adapted  to 
ends,  but  with  no  cumbrous  decoration 
or  ponderous  display.  These  capitals  are 
bureaucratic  settlements,  devoted  to  the 
deliberate  ends  of  national  government 
with  a  minimum  of  waste,  strictly  appro- 
priated to  use  alone,  rendering  their  service 
to  the  nation  as  a  counting-house  renders  its 
service  to  a  great  factory.  Peasants  walk 
their  streets  in  brilliant  village  dresses.  No 
one  thinks  a  rational  country  costume  inap- 
propriate to  the  pavement  of  the  capital. 
This  is  an  index  to  the  idea  of  purpose 
which  pervades  the  town  ;  there  is  none  of 
the  sense  that  a  different  costume  is  needed 

no 


THE  HOME  COUNTRY 

for  urban  life,  an  idea  which  arises  from  the 
association  of  towns  with  pleasure  and 
display. 

The  spirit  of  Sofia,  always  serious, 
appeared  even  more  so  in  time  of  war. 
One  noticed  at  once  an  abnormal  condition 
in  that  the  streets  were  swept  by  women, 
that  the  public  offices  had  boys  for  door- 
keepers, and  that  the  museum  was  guarded 
by  a  peasant  with  an  ancient  rifle,  a  lamb- 
skin cap  and  raw  leather  sandals. 

Sofia  lies  between  the  Balkan  and  the 
Vitosch  mountains  in  a  small  plain,  so  ele- 
vated that  it  forms  almost  a  summit,  as  it 
were,  to  the  habitable  Balkan  lands,  and  so 
central  that  from  here  rivers  drain  in  many 
directions  :  on  the  south  to  the  iEgean ;  on 
the  east  to  the  great  valley  of  the  Maritza  ; 
on  the  north,  by  a  strange  chasm  through  the 
'  Old  Balkan '  range,  to  the  Danube.  There 
is  something  bracing,  even  in  the  hottest 
summer,  in  the  atmosphere  of  Sofia.  South- 
wards down  the  length  of  any  of  its 
strangely  modern  stucco  streets  you  see 
the  blue  haze  of  Vitosch  hanging  over  the 

in 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

town.  Turn  the  other  way,  and  from  the 
low  ridge  where  stands  the  cathedral  and 
the  Russian  Legation,  you  see  the  high  wall 
of  the  Balkan,  carrying  the  mind  on  the 
one  side  to  its  eastern  end  on  the  Black  Sea, 
on  the  other  to  its  curving  extension 
between  Hungary  and  Rumania  and 
on  to  Galicia,  Poland,  and  Bohemia. 
In  winter  the  sensation  is  even  more 
inspiriting  ;  the  heights  round  are  a  dazzling 
white,  and  the  brain  workers  of  the  town, 
both  native  and  diplomatic,  snatch  an 
hour's  daily  recreation  in  skating  on  perfect 
ice  in  the  park  beyond  the  Parliament 
House. 

Few  sights  can  be  more  inspiring  to  the 
lover  of  liberty  and  national  progress  than 
a  view  of  Sofia  from  the  hill  where  the 
great  seminary  of  the  national  church 
overlooks  the  plain.  There  at  your  feet 
is  spread  out  the  unpretentious  seat  of  a 
government  which  stands  for  the  advance 
of  European  order  in  lands  long  blighted 
with  barbarism.  Here  resides,  and  is 
centred,    the     virile     force     of    a    people 

112 


.    '    .  • 


•> 


•  >  ' '  •  : » 


>  ■ 


•     "        '  ,  t  ,  ,  a     > 


W 
S3 

W 
H 
< 

«: 

< 

« 

o 
1-) 

D 

ffl 


•       ■  • 


THE  HOME  COUNTRY 

which  has  advanced  the  bounds  of  liberty. 
From  here,  symbolised  by  the  rivers  and 
roads  running  down  on  each  side,  has 
extended,  and  will  further  extend,  the 
power  of  modern  education,  of  unhampered 
ideas,  of  science  and  of  humanity.  From 
this  magnificent  viewpoint  Sofia  stretches 
along  the  low  hill  with  the  dark  background 
of  the  Balkan  beyond.  Against  that  back- 
ground now  stands  out  the  new  embodiment 
of  Bulgarian  and  Slavonic  energy,  genius, 
and  freedom  of  mind,  the  great  cathedral, 
with  its  vast  golden  domes  brilliantly 
standing  out  from  the  shade  behind  them. 
In  no  other  capital  is  a  great  church  shown 
to  such  effect,  viewed  from  one  range  of 
hills  against  the  mountainous  slopes  of 
another.  It  is  a  building  which,  with  its 
marvellous  mural  paintings,  would  in  any 
capital  form  an  object  of  world  interest, 
but  which,  in  the  capital  of  a  tiny  peasant 
State,  supremely  embodies  that  breadth 
of  mind  which 

-...  rejects  the  lore 
Of  nicely  calculated  less  or  more.' 

113  I 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

Away  to  the  right  is  the  great  military 
college,  surmounting  another  hill.  Here  in 
normal  times  presides  Colonel  Jostoff,  now 
chief  of  the  staff  of  General  Dimitrieff's 
army  and  of  the  combined  armies  at  Lule 
Burgas  and  Chatalja,  and  also  military 
member  of  the  peace  delegation  in  London. 
To-day,  instead  of  military  students,  the 
building  was  filled  with  wounded.  No 
fewer  than  1200  lay  there.  The  entire 
nursing  staff  was  of  lady  volunteers  ;  at 
their  head  a  prime  minister's  widow ; 
almost  all  of  them  untrained  ;  many  of  high 
position ;  women  of  all  grades  working 
together  without  attention  to  social  dis- 
tinction. The  doctoring  was  undertaken 
by  foreign  Red  Cross  contingents,  all 
Bulgarian  doctors  being  at  the  front. 
The  vast  building  was  divided,  not  in 
blocks,  but  horizontally,  between  several  of 
these.  The  various  floors  allotted  to  the 
respective  contingents  formed  worlds  of 
different  nationality,  among  whom  Hun- 
garian, German  and  Austrian  occupied  a 
prominent  place. 

114 


THE  HOME  COUNTRY 

There  was  one  spot  where,  unlike  any 
other,  the  number  of  men  was  un- 
diminished. It  was  the  choir  gallery  of 
the  old  Cathedral,  still  used  for  the  central 
service  of  Sofia,  until  the  new  building  is 
consecrated.  That  service  is  one  which  I 
never  miss,  and  which  anyone  who  can 
be  at  Sofia  at  9.30  on  Sunday  morning 
should  make  a  point  of  attending.  The 
choir,  originally  trained  by  Russians,  is 
of  extraordinary  excellence.  There  is,  as 
elsewhere  in  the  Eastern  Church,  no  instru- 
ment to  mar  the  exquisite  beauty  of  its 
part-singing.  Its  members  had,  to  my 
great  satisfaction,  not  been  called  to  the 
war.  The  service  was  rendered  with  more 
than  usual  impressiveness.  The  crowd  of 
women  and  children  was  normal,  and  did 
not  even  display  much  mourning  in  its 
dress,  for  all  news  of  casualties  from  the 
front  was  sternly  suppressed  by  govern- 
ment ;  but  not  many  officers  were  to  be  seen, 
and  common  soldiers,  usually  so  numerous 
at  the  cathedral,  were  also  absent,  for  few 
wounded   men   had   yet   been   discharged 

115  *  2 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

from  the  hospitals.  Nearer  the  front,  where 
troops  were  quartered,  the  war  seemed 
rather  to  increase  the  number  of  soldiers 
attending  mass.  Even  at  Kirklisse,  where 
the  work  of  war  was  arduous,  and  at  the 
advanced  posts  such  as  Lule  Burgas,  I  saw 
large  numbers  of  men  from  the  regiments 
quartered  there  attending  the  Sunday 
celebration,  although  the  Church  was  not 
Bulgarian,  but  orthodox  Greek,  by  whom 
the  Bulgarian  has  hitherto  been  regarded 
as  schismatic.  The  new  and  friendly  spirit 
born  of  the  alliance  was  symbolised  at 
Kirklisse,  where  King  Ferdinand  paid  con- 
spicuous attention  to  the  Greek  Church. 

Bulgarians  are  distinguished  for  an 
extraordinary  love  of  reality  and  a  total 
freedom  from  desire  for  show.  They 
might  have  been  excused  if,  in  the  crisis 
of  war,  they  displayed  a  nervous  anxiety 
(for  the  national  existence  was  at  stake) 
or  a  sense  of  pride  in  their  marvellous 
victories.  The  national  characteristics  of 
reserve    and    simplicity    were    put    to    a 

116 


THE  HOME  COUNTRY 

supreme  test,  and  in  no  way  could  the 
test  have  been  more  perfectly  met. 
Coolness  was,  above  all,  conspicuous  in 
ministers  themselves.  At  a  moment  when 
the  national  existence  was  at  stake  ;  when 
world-famous  victories  had  been  won  ; 
and  when  the  Great  Powers  might  com- 
bine to  deprive  the  nation  of  the  fruits 
of  those  victories,  ministers  were  dis- 
playing perfect  sangfroid,  seeking  inter- 
views with  non-political  friends,  dispensing 
with  motor-cars  and  walking  to  their 
appointments,  while  the  Prime  Minister, 
with  utter  freedom  from  self-importance 
or  hurry,  was  calling  on  English  acquaint- 
ances at  the  Bulgaria  Hotel.  Yet  every- 
one had  relations  at  the  front,  and  knew 
the  meaning  of  deep  anxiety,  both  private 
and  public. 

The  peasant  soldier,  when  tired  of  war, 
could  realise  only  too  clearly  the  destitution 
of  his  home.  From  every  farm  the  active 
man  had  gone  ;  the  best  of  the  waggons 
and  the  oxen  had  gone  too.     The  Bulgar 

117 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

is  famous  for  work  on  the  land  ;  there  is 
never,  on  his  farm,  a  spare  margin  of 
labour  to  fall  back  on.  The  women  have 
always  more  toil  than  their  share,  but  now 
they  were  compelled  to  do  the  men's  task 
as  well — to  guide  the  plough  through  the 
heavy  clay,  and  in  the  absence  of  the  ox- 
waggon  even  to  act  as  beasts  of  transport. 
Along  every  road  and  from  the  windows 
of  the  train  one  could  see  women,  girls 
and  small  boys  toiling  at  men's  work  in 
the  fields.  It  may  well  be  that  the  extra 
strain  will  have  injured  many  of  the 
already  hard- worked  children. 

But  on  the  farms  there  was,  at  least 
in  most  cases,  a  store  of  food  for  the 
winter,  and  though  the  waggons  were 
requisitioned,  the  corn,  if  taken,  was 
paid  for.  In  the  towns,  however,  distress 
was  terrible.  All  factories  were  closed, 
for  nowhere  did  sufficient  hands  remain  to 
work  them.  The  unhappy  families  of  the 
men  who  stayed,  as  well  as  those  who 
had  gone,  were  even  more  helpless  than 

118 


THE  HOME  COUNTRY 

if  a  general  strike  had  been  declared, 
because  no  organisation  existed  for  mutual 
help.  At  the  same  time  prices  rose,  and 
that  stratum  of  the  population  which 
in  every  country  lives  on  the  margin  of 
decent  sustenance  was  brought  to  the 
level  of  starvation.  It  was  as  if  every 
family  was  orphaned  and  every  soldier's 
wife  widowed,  for  no  communications  for 
a  long  period  of  the  war  were  allowed 
from  the  front,  and  while  the  mainten- 
ance of  the  soldier's  family  was  not  pro- 
vided for,  the  uncertainty  of  his  fate 
created  an  anxiety  even  greater  than  the 
pain  of  ascertained  loss. 

The  ordinary  conditions  of  life  became 
almost  as  severe  as  those  at  the  seat  of  war, 
so  that  the  sections  of  the  nation  which 
remained  at  home,  equally  with  those  at 
the  front,  formed,  as  it  were,  a  gigantic 
camp — a  vast  factory,  not  of  goods, 
but  of  efforts  directed  to  one  supreme 
end. 

In  the  chief  towns,  after  a  month  of  war, 
destitution  became  acute,  but  little  could 

119 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

be  done  to  relieve  it.  Such  generosity 
as  was  available  among  those  who  had 
anything  to  spare  was  devoted  to  the  war 
itself,  or  to  the  Red  Cross  Society,  which 
had  the  whole  burden  of  the  wounded 
on  its  hands.  In  towns,  therefore,  like 
Sofia  and  Philippopolis,  subscriptions  were 
attempted,  and  the  municipalities  set 
aside  funds,  all  too  inadequate,  for 
the  families  of  soldiers  and  out-of- 
works.  But  the  relief  of  distress  is 
a  matter  requiring  long  practice,  and 
remains  an  inexact  makeshift,  even  in 
the  wealthy  and  trained  communities  of 
England  and  Germany.  In  a  new  and 
poor  country  it  cannot  possibly  cover 
the  ground.  Mothers  of  hungry  children 
applied  to  the  relief  office,  often  in  vain. 
Inquiry  was  necessary,  to  prevent  the 
waste  of  funds,  yet  for  inquiry  there  was 
no  machinery  at  hand.  At  Philippopolis, 
when  I  returned  from  the  war,  a  woman 
who  had  been  refused  help  for  her  children 
cast  about  for  some  expedient  to  obtain 
attention    for     them.     She     could     find 

120 


THE  HOME  COUNTRY 

none,  until  it  struck  her  at  last  that 
if  she  herself  were  dead,  then  surely 
the  children  would  be  cared  for.  She 
found  no  other  way  to  save  them,  and 
with  great  deliberation  she  hanged 
herself. 


iai 


III.— EPILOGUE 
CHAPTER  VI 

THE    WAR   AND   THE    POWERS 

At  the  headquarters  of  the  army  politi- 
cal news  was  scarce.  Newspapers  arrived 
from  the  capital  sometimes  in  ten  days, 
frequently  not  at  all.  But  communica- 
tions improved  with  the  arrival  of  King 
Ferdinand.  His  journey  itself  represented 
a  record  in  speed.  The  distance  covered 
by  us  in  two  days'  riding,  and  for  which 
the  ox-waggons  occupied  a  week,  was 
accomplished  by  him  in  a  day.  A  large 
number  of  motors  started  simultaneously 
with  the  King  from  Yamboli,  so  as  to 
provide  for  breakdowns.  A  consider- 
able margin  was  expected  to  stick  fast 
in  the  mud.     A  small  proportion  of  the 

122 


THE  WAR  AND  THE  POWERS 

total  succeeded  in  getting  through,  and 
the  triumphant  entry  took  place,  to  every- 
one's astonishment,  on  the  same  day  as 
the  departure  from  Yamboli.  A  horse 
post  was  afterwards  arranged  for  his 
Majesty's  convenience,  and  we  began  to 
get  letters  and  newspapers  more  quickly ; 
at  first  by  the  same  route,  through  the 
mountains,  afterwards  round  the  south 
and  west  sides  of  Adrianople,  when  rail- 
way communications  improved. 

The  Bulgarian  Foreign  Office  publishes 
a  convenient  daily  sheet  of  condensed 
items  of  European  news  affecting  Bulgaria 
— an  ideally  potted  form  of  intelligence, 
reduced  to  a  minimum.  But  I  found 
to  my  surprise  that  even  the  generals 
did  not  make  time  to  read  it.  The 
announcements  of  Sir  Edward  Grey  and 
Mr.  Asquith  that  the  allies  should  not  be 
deprived  of  the  fruits  of  their  victories 
were  still  ignored  by  them  a  fortnight 
later,  though  at  Sofia  these  were  recognised 
as  the  most  momentous  of  all  events  for 
Bulgaria,    showing   that   the   Powers   had 

123 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

accepted  the  new  situation  made  by 
successful  war,  and  would  not  any  longer 
impose  an  artificial  tyranny  on  the  Balkan 
States. 

Yet  all  the  time  the  generals  had 
their  eye  and  their  thoughts  on  politics 
of  a  real  kind.  With  Bulgarian  philo- 
sophy they  relied  upon  the  effect  of 
realities  like  victory  rather  than  the  super- 
ficial tactics  of  journalistic  diplomacy. 
Their  attention  could  not  be  drawn 
beyond  politics  and  war.  The  Balkan 
States  are  nations  in  arms,  and  as  these 
nations  have  been  necessarily  absorbed 
in  their  political  situation,  every  man 
is  a  thinker  on  international  politics  to 
a  degree  probably  unparalleled  in  the 
world.  There  is  hardly  a  peasant  in 
Bulgaria  who  is  not  familiar  through 
his  friends  and  the  newspaper  with  move- 
ments in  England  affecting  his  national 
cause  ;  much  more  then,  at  the  supper 
table  of  the  generals,  did  politics  share 
the  conversation  with  war. 

It  was  very  instructive  to  realise  from 

124 


THE  WAR  AND  THE  POWERS 

their  talk  the  light  in  which  the  action  of 
the  Great  Powers  must  appear  to  these 
nations,  for  whom  high  diplomacy  means 
not  the  safety  of  a  government  or  the 
triumph  of  a  Foreign  Minister,  but  the 
making  or  marring  of  daily  life. 

For  an  Englishman,  the  difference  be- 
tween the  aspects  of  things  as  seen  in 
England  and  in  Thrace  was  only  too  clear. 
One  could  not  view  the  misery  that  pre- 
vailed on  everv  hand  without  an  uncom- 
fortable  recollection  that  if  England  had 
chanced  to  take  a  different  line  in  the 
great  days  of  the  Russo-Turkish  war,  this 
unhappy  country  would  have  been  freed 
for  more  than  a  generation.  To-day  there 
would  be  neither  devastation,  death,  dis- 
ablement, destitution,  nor  demoralisation, 
but  a  settled  and  prosperous  community, 
and  a  land  developing,  as  one  has  seen  the 
land  develop  year  by  year  in  Bulgaria. 

In  recent  years  it  has  been  the  Powers 
collectively  who,  as  seen  from  the  Balkans, 
have  cut  such  a  poor  figure.  Trembling  be- 
fore their  own  divisions  and  the  risks  which 

125 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

might  arise  from  any  positive  action,  they 
have  been  paralysed.  Their  measures  have 
been  purely  negative.  While  admitting 
that  the  Macedonian  grievance  was  in- 
tolerable, and  that  it  menaced  European 
peace,  they  brought  forth  before  the  Turkish 
Revolution  of  1908  a  scheme  of  inspection 
alone,  which  added  to  the  chaos.  They 
established  officers  to  supervise,  but  not 
control,  finance  and  gendarmerie.  These 
served  only  to  increase  friction,  to  redouble 
political  crime,  and  to  aid  the  compilation 
of  statistics  of  murder. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  Foreign 
Offices  and  chancelleries  the  fault  of  Europe 
seemed  slight.  The  blame  seemed  rather 
to  attach  to  disturbers  of  the  peace — 
to  the  rebels  with  insufficient  common 
sense  to  overlook  the  destruction  of  their 
homes,  to  government  with  inadequate 
regard  for  the  comfort  of  European  diplo- 
mats. The  efforts  of  Lord  Lansdowne 
and  Sir  Edward  Grey  towards  reform 
by  the  Concert  did  indeed  represent  a 
spirit  which  deserved  the  highest  praise  ; 
but  let  anyone  imagine  himself  a  native  of 

126 


THE  WAR  AND  THE  POWERS 

Macedonia  or  Thrace,  and  glance  at  Europe 
from  the  bosom  of  a  Balkan  family  ;  he 
will  realise  the  incompetence,  callousness 
and  fatuity  which,  to  one  who  lived  in  the 
hard  realities  that  hitherto  blasted  the 
Balkan  peasant's  existence,  attached  to  the 
Great  Powers  as  a  whole.  To  the  peasant 
it  is  clear  to  him  that  if  the  populations  of 
the  great  States  understood  life  as  he 
understands  it,  they  would  impose  on  their 
rulers  a  harmony  which  would  remove 
the  dangers  of  action  by  the  Concert,  and 
would  demand  of  them  a  reforming  policy. 
They  would  not  tolerate  the  continuance 
of  grievances  whose  removal  was  only  pre- 
vented by  the  rift  in  the  Concert  and  the 
sluggishness  of  the  diplomatic  machine, 
and  which  were  easily  amenable  to  the 
overwhelming  physical  force  of  the 
Great  Powers.  To  the  generals  at  head- 
quarters in  Kirklisse,  chatting  in  French 
the  Powers  were  not  puissances  but 
impuissances. 

The  culminating  phase  of  the  drama 
has  been  the  most  discreditable  of  all.  The 
Powers  for  many  years  had  done  nothing 

127 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

except  to  forbid  the  Balkan  peoples  to 
liberate  themselves.  Now,  on  the  very  eve 
of  war,  while  wholly  sanctioning  the  demand 
for  reform,  they  ponderously  threatened  the 
small  States  with  deprivation  and  punish- 
ment if  they  should  fight.  The  promises 
of  the  Concert,  which  in  1878  had  at  Berlin 
restored  Macedonia  to  Turkey,  on  the 
ground  that  reform  would  be  better  effected 
by  the  Great  Powers  than  by  the  local 
populations,  had  proved  false.  The  small 
States  had  long  been  ready  to  effect  what 
the  Powers  would  not.  Yet  still  the  Concert 
repeated  its  parrot  cry,  '  You  shall  reap  no 
reward  if  you  fight ;  we  will  not  guarantee 
reform,  but  neither  shall  you.' 

The  Bulgarians,  whose  Government  in 
1903,  and  again  in  1908,  had  with  such  diffi- 
culty refused  the  popular  demand  for  war, 
saw  now,  as  we  sat  at  supper  in  the  Turkish 
Club  at  Kirklisse,  that  their  own  view  had 
been  right.  They  had  taken  the  Powers 
too  seriously.  The  Powers  had  been 
\  bluffing  '  for  their  own  advantage — and 
not  even  for  their  real  advantage,  but  to 
avoid  immediate  trouble.     The  bubble  was 

128 


THE  WAR  AND  THE  POWERS 

now  pricked.  The  death  roll  of  2000 
murders  a  year  between  1903  and  1908 
might  have  been  saved.  The  ponderous  pro- 
tests of  the  Collective  Note  of  September, 
1912,  were  not  even  serious.  At  the  first 
great  victory  of  the  allies  the  Concert  had, 
without  a  blush,  swallowed  its  words  of  a 
month  before.  The  moral  force  of  civilisa- 
tion had  lost  its  weight.  These  prosperous, 
over-fed  classes,  who  controlled  the  Govern- 
ments of  Europe,  how  could  they  be  worthy 
of  anything  but  cynical  disgust  ?  Viewed 
from  the  seat  of  war  (and  not  from  the 
Christian  side  only,  but  the  Turkish  also) 
the  governmental  morals  of  Europe  were 
clearly  contemptible. 

This  is  not  to  say  that  the  sacrifices  im- 
posed by  the  Powers'  neglect  were  resented. 
The  admiration  of  Europe  for  military  suc- 
cess gave  great  delight.  But  the  sacrifice 
involved  suggests  the  question  whether 
mere  admiration  is  the  attitude  that  be- 
comes us  best. 

In  England  the  war  is  welcomed.  It  is 
urged  that  it  has  brought  to  light  a  great 

129  K 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

people ;  that  '  the  ventral  dream  of  peace  ' 
is  faded  ;  that  '  the  great  illusion  '  was  not 
the  value  of  war  but  the  good  of  tranquillity ; 
the  Balkan  nations  have  found  their  feet ; 
there  are  new  fighting  races  to  be  admired. 

But  the  price  of  all  this  is  ignored  ;  we 
forget  that  the  sacrifices  involved  could 
have  been  avoided.  If  Sir  Edward  Grey's 
effort  of  1908  had  not  been  interrupted  by 
the  Turkish  Revolution,  if  by  ever  so  little 
the  forces  in  Europe  urging  the  settlement 
of  just  claims  by  the  Concert  acting  as 
a  European  police  had  been  greater,  a 
European  governor  would  have  been  in- 
stalled at  Salonica.  Bloodshed  would  have 
ceased,  and  in  time  an  autonomous  State 
would  have   been   evolved. 

There  are  those  who  argue  that  in  any 
case  Bulgaria  would  have  made  an  excuse 
for  war.  Such  a  view  proves  an  extra- 
ordinary ignorance  of  the  nature  of  Bul- 
garian feeling.  The  extreme  difficulty  of 
arousing  a  State  whose  liberty  has  been 
secured,  and  whose  temper  is  cool,  to  the 
risks  of  a  war  mainly  designed  to  liberate 
others,  has  always  been  evident  to  those 

130 


THE  WAR  AND  THE  POWERS 

who  followed  the  attempt  of  the  Mace- 
donian refugees  in  Sofia  to  bring  about 
Bulgarian  intervention.  To  the  Bulgar 
temperament  a  bird  in  the  hand  is  worth 
many  in  the  bush. 

Unquestionably,  at  all  events,  the  over- 
whelming force  of  the  Powers,  or  even 
a  section  of  them,  acting  as  England, 
France  and  Russia  acted  at  Dulcigno 
after  the  Berlin  Treaty,  could  have  solved 
the  Balkan  dilemma  without  firing  a  shot. 
It  required  only  a  somewhat  more  active 
belief  in  justice  and  self-government  than 
has  at  present  been  evolved,  to  produce 
action  by  the  Concert. 

The  question  whether  the  Balkan 
problem  could  have  been  solved  without 
war  is  of  interest  not  alone  to  the  Balkan 
and  Ottoman  people,  but  to  the  world  at 
large.  It  calls  our  attention  to  the  general 
problem  of  international  harmony. 

The  Balkan  imbroglio  is  a  crucial 
illustration  of  the  difficulties  which  con- 
front those  who  desire  to  see  wars  avoided. 
It  was,   of  all  the  world's  problems,   the 

131  K  2 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

most  likely  cause  of  war  and  the  most 
difficult  to  solve  by  peaceful  means.  If 
the  pacificist  can  maintain  his  theory  in 
spite  of  it,  there  is  no  difficulty  which  he 
cannot  face,  for  the  danger  of  war  arises 
mainly  from  the  unsettled  portions  of  the 
world,  and  of  these  Turkey  is  the  chief 
instance.  They  constitute  bones  of 
contention  which,  so  long  as  they  are 
unappropriated  and  without  ordered 
administration,  give  rise  to  rival  ambi- 
tions. The  possible  sources  of  friction 
of  this  kind  have  vastly  diminished  in 
our  time  alone,  and  decrease  in  number 
year  by  year.  We  have  seen  disappear 
from  the  list  the  Spanish  colonies,  Korea, 
Morocco,  and  now  Macedonia.  If  those 
that  remain  can  be  removed  without  war, 
the  prospects  of  peace  are  good. 

Why,  then,  was  not  the  problem  of 
Macedonia  solved  without  war  ?  It  is 
because,  quite  apart  from  the  self-in- 
terested factors  which  in  every  country 
will  always  make  for  war,  the  disinterested 
feeling  of  Europe  is  itself  doubtful  on  the 

132 


THE  WAR  AND  THE  POWERS 

question  of  the  benefits  of  permanent 
peace.  This  sense  of  doubt  stifles  the 
inclination  of  the  mass  of  moderate  men 
towards  active  support  of  pacifism.  In 
regard  to  the  Balkans  the  argument  was 
constantly  used  that  the  Balkan  nations 
could  only  gain  by  their  own  warlike 
efforts.  The  late  Lord  Percy  was  a  dis- 
tinguished exponent  of  this  view.  He  held 
that  without  those  efforts  liberation  would 
be  useless.  Consequently,  when  liberative 
action  by  the  Concert  was  in  question, 
the  general  desire  for  reform,  which  would 
have  reinforced,  for  instance,  Lord  Lans- 
downe's  proposal  to  the  Powers  in  1904, 
was  paralysed  at  the  start.  Diplomacy, 
in  short,  failed  to  prevent  war,  not  because 
a  peaceful  solution  was  not  feasible,  but 
because  it  was  not  thought   desirable. 

The  question  of  the  value  of  war  is 
worth  discussing  because  it  is  now  for 
the  first  time  taken  seriously  by  the  mass 
of  men.  The  men  of  business,  especially 
since  the  commercial  failures  resulting  from 

133 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

recent  wars,  and  even  from  rumours  of 
wars,  such  as  caused  the  financial  panics 
in  September  1911,  are  beginning  to  wonder 
whether  the  whole  of  modern  business  life 
is  not  built  upon  a  structure  of  peace  and 
would  not  without  it  fall  with  a  ruinous 
crash. 

Arguments  for  war  are  losing  their  in- 
fluence. The  crude  '  scientific  '  inference 
from  the  survival  of  the  fittest  has  been 
adequately  answered  by  the  evident  prac- 
tical injury  sustained  to  national  physique 
by  the  French  in  the  Franco-German  war, 
and  by  such  a  people  as  the  Bulgarians, 
who  will  perhaps  have  lost  one  in  ten  of 
their  most  vigorous  men,  incapacitated  in 
the  prime  of  life.  Here  the  pacificist  finds 
an  ally  in  science  itself — that  of  eugenics. 
The  eugenist  justly  points  to  the  physical 
advantage  which  the  English  race  has 
gained  through  the  non-participation  of 
the  healthiest  working-classes  as  a  whole 
in  any  great  war. 

Few  wars  are  now  called  inevitable.  It 
is  admitted  in  England  that  our  influence 

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THE  WAR  AND  THE  POWERS 

has  at  times  prevented  war,  and  may 
often  do  so  in  the  future.  If  our  lead 
in  the  Balkan  question  had  been  but  a 
little  more  forcible  than  it  was,  it  might 
have  prevented  even  that  most  unavoid- 
able of  wars.  And  few  wars  are  thought 
now  to  'pay/  It  is  not  on  the  whole  the 
financial  or  animal  instincts  of  man  which 
are  responsible  for  the  non-cessation  of  war. 
It  is  rather  a  general  doubt  whether,  if 
war  were  to  cease,  there  would  not  result 
some  loss  of  national  character.  The 
opinion  that  a  nation  gains  in  character 
from  the  supreme  effort  of  a  national 
physical  struggle  is  a  matter  of  instinctive 
\  feeling,  and  dies  slowly.  If  anywhere  in 
the  world  it  is  likely  to  be  proved,  it  would 
be  by  the  Bulgarians,  who  through  war 
have  become  known.  It  is  vital  to 
learn  what  light  is  to  be  gained  at  this  point 
from  the  recent  war.  If  Bulgarian  char- 
acter had  without  war  developed  the 
qualities  usually  ascribed  to  warlike  races, 
the  fact  is  of  great  importance.  This 
question  deserves  a  separate  chapter. 

*35 


CHAPTER  VII 

WHY   THE   BULGARIANS   WON 

A  high  officer  of  the  general  Staff  said 
to  me  that  he  had  always  relied  on  the 
Bulgarian  troops,  but  he  was  surprised 
by  their  extraordinary  excellence.  He 
concluded  a  long  eulogy  with  the  remark 
that  the  great  quality  for  war  is  '  good 
blood/  The  expression,  uttered  in  French, 
has  a  shade  of  meaning  difficult  to  render ; 
it  is  worth  while  to  consider  some  of 
the  qualities  which  justified  it. 

The  feature  of  the  fighting  which  has 
attracted  most  attention  in  Europe  has 
been  the  elan  shown  at  Kirklisse  and 
Lule  Burgas.  This  was  the  quality  which 
surprised  the  Bulgarians  themselves.  It 
was,  indeed,  on  the  whole,  the  factor 
which     won     the     war.     At     particular 

136 


WHY  THE  BULGARIANS  WON 

moments  it  proved  almost  excessive.  The 
troops  out-marched  their  supplies,  and 
consequently,  through  injur}7  by  hunger, 
fell  sick  at  Chatalja.  It  also  produced 
the  Turkish  panic  at  Kirklisse  too  soon, 
so  that  the  majority  of  the  garrison  had 
escaped  before  the  Bulgarian  cavalry 
could   cut    them   off. 

But  to  anyone  ignorant  of  Bulgar- 
ians the  mention  of  elan  alone  would  be 
misleading.  It  would  give  an  impres- 
sion of  dashing  style  and  quality  like  that 
of  the  Montenegrin,  whereas  its  peculiar- 
ity lay  in  its  combination  with  opposite 
qualities  rarely  found  with  that  of  dash. 
Its  moral  effect  arose  from  the  strength 
imparted  to  it  by  men  habitually  cool, 
practical  and  purposeful. 

Illustrations  of  these  qualities  could 
be  drawn  by  any  traveller  from  ordinary 
Balkan  life.  Some  were  visible  in  time  of 
war  which  acquire  a  peculiar  interest  now. 

Take  purpose  first.  There  is  some- 
thing in  the  Bulgarian  character,  not 
exactly   corresponding   to   tenacity   or   to 

137 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

courage,  which  is  I  think  best  depicted  in 
the  conduct  of  the  Bulgarian  revolu- 
tionaries. These  men,  who  have  for  twenty- 
five  years  worked  against  the  Turkish 
government  in  Macedonia,  habitually  took 
their  life  in  their  hands,  and  frequently 
sacrificed  it.  They  were  always  provided 
with  bombs  and  with  poison,  to  take  their 
own  lives  in  the  event  of  being  captured. 
There  was  no  question  but  that  capture 
would  mean  torture,  and  every  man  ran 
such  obvious  risks  that  sacrifice  of  life 
was  deliberately  undertaken.  Bands  were 
sometimes  surrounded,  and  it  was  never 
known  that  a  man  gave  himself  up  alive. 
On  one  occasion  no  fewer  than  thirteen 
men,  finding  themselves  surrounded,  and 
their  ammunition  running  out,  decided 
to  die  in  orderly  fashion.  They  hastily 
consulted  together,  and  agreed  to  use 
their  last  cartridges  on  themselves.  A 
note  was  then  written  which,   in  case  it 

was  ever  found  and  taken  home,  would 
tell  their  parents  and  friends  of  their 
distress  in    causing    them    trouble.     The 

138 


WHY  THE  BULGARIANS  WON 

leader   then   shot   each   one   in   turn   and 
finally   himself. 

When  the  war  began,  an  incident 
occurred  which  picturesquely  illustrates 
this  dogged  determination  and  indifference 
to  life.  The  leader  of  the  rebel  organisa- 
tion in  Sofia  was  a  man  named  Lazaroff. 
He  had  years  ago  been  imprisoned,  when 
a  Turkish  subject,  and  sent  to  an  un- 
wholesome fortress  in  Asia  Minor.  When 
released  he  had  contracted  consumption, 
and  henceforward  was  obliged  to  keep 
his  bed.  From  there,  in  a  small  hotel 
at  Sofia,  he  directed  the  operations  of 
the  revolution  in  Macedonia,  keeping  up 
correspondence  with  the  militant  chief, 
by  name  Alexandroff.  When  war  was 
declared  he  summoned  to  his  bedside  a 
leading  professor  of  the  University,  him- 
self a  Macedonian,  and  handed  over  to 
him  the  funds  of  the  organisation.  He 
then  wrote  to  Alexandroff  praising  his 
revolutionary  genius,  and  saying  that, 
as  their  great  aim  had  now  been  realised 
by  the  war,  he  had  reluctantly  concluded 

139 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

that  his  health  was  unequal  to  under- 
taking the  new  tasks  of  the  future.  It 
was  not  fitting,  he  said,  that  a  revolution- 
ary should  eke  out  a  useless  life  or  die 
in  peace.  He  then  took  a  revolver  and 
terminated  his  life. 

Indifferent  in  some  such  fashion  to 
death,  the  army  went  to  the  front  with 
great  though  restrained  cheerfulness. 
When  visiting  the  wounded  in  the  hospital 
I  frequently  induced  them  to  speak  of 
their  ideas  with  regard  to  the  war.  '  We 
sang  all  the  time/  they  often  said.  '  We 
were  fighting  for  our  brothers,  to  release 
them  from  oppression.  It  is  right  that 
we  should  suffer  for  them.  The  Russians 
suffered  to  liberate  us.'  Outside  Philip- 
popolis,  as  we  passed  in  the  train,  the 
youngest  grade  of  recruits  were  being 
hurriedly  taught  the  elements  of  drill. 
They  were  in  the  highest  spirits,  and 
cheered  every  train  as  it  passed.  I  found, 
even  among  the  wounded,  no  bitter  feeling 
towards  the  Turks.     They  often  described 

140 


WHY  THE  BULGARIANS  WON 

the  barbarities  their  comrades  had  suffered, 
and  the  news  of  these  was  suppressed  by  the 
Government  lest  it  should  arouse  animosity 
among  the  people ;  but  there  was  no  trace 
of  this  among  the  soldiers. 

Intelligent  enthusiasm  was  so  wide- 
spread that  the  war  could  be  called  popu- 
lar in  more  than  the  ordinary  sense.  Its 
popularity  was  greater  than  could  be 
imagined  in  England  because  the  spirit 
of  the  country  is  really  democratic.  The 
officers  feel  no  obligation  to  keep  up  a 
feeling  of  distance.  The  men  have  no 
sense  of  abasing  themselves  before  a 
superior  class.  In  both  cases  things  are 
judged  by  the  standard  of  utility.  The 
object  in  view  is  one  which  appeals  to 
all.  Social  distinction  is  forgotten  in  the 
urgent  necessities  of  national  life.  As  we 
rode  with  the  commander-in-chief,  peasants 
by  the  road  would  call  to  each  other 
*  Savoff/  without  the  slightest  note  of  awe. 
I  frequently  saw  officers  greeting  with 
effusion  private  soldiers  from  other  regi- 
ments, whom  they  hailed  as  old  friends, 

141 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN;  STAFF 

interested  to  find  each  other  in  unwonted 
scenes.  This  is  largely  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  officers  are  sometimes  drawn  from 
peasant  families.  I  remember  once  stay- 
ing in  a  small  farmer's  house  on  the  north 
side  of  the  Rodope  range,  where  every- 
thing was  of  the  simplest.  A  few  days 
later  at  Tchepine  we  were  invited  to  dine 
with  the  mess  of  the  detachment  quartered 
there,  and  I  noticed  a  particularly  dapper 
and  aristocratic-looking  lieutenant.  On 
inquiring  who  he  was,  I  found  him  to  be 
the  son  of  the  farmer  with  whom  I  had 
been  staying.  On  the  other  hand,  among 
the  ranks  at  the  war  were  sometimes 
to  be  found  men  of  business,  lawyers 
and  government  officials,  often  of  better 
social  position  than  some  of  the  officers.  I 
came  across  at  different  times  journalists 
also,  and  diplomatists,  serving  as  reservists. 
The  consciousness  of  an  immense 
national  effort  helped  to  bring  all  sorts  and 
conditions  into  line.  The  strain  on  the 
supply  of  men  gave  everyone  the  sense  of 
national  emergency.     It  was  so  great  that 

142 


WHY  THE  BULGARIANS  WON 

in  the  capital  many  unwonted  functions 
were  discharged  by  women.  Every  leisured 
woman  in  the  country  was  occupied  with 
the  wounded,  and  on  the  farms  there  was 
not  a  woman  or  child  whose  work  did 
not  become  tenfold  more  arduous  because 
of  the  war.  Factories  were  all  closed ; 
banks  were  short-handed ;  even  Parlia- 
ments, if  there  had  been  work  to  perform, 
could  with  difficulty  have  done  business, 
either  in  Belgrade  or  Sofia,  because  so  many 
members  of  Parliament  were  fighting  at  the 
front.  In  the  trenches  at  Chatalja  one  of 
the  vice-presidents  of  the  Bulgarian  Parlia- 
ment was  seen  by  a  friend  of  mine  standing, 
after  a  rainy  day,  up  to  his  waist  in  water. 

Coolness  is  another  quality  which  makes 
that  of  dash  more  remarkable.  It  was 
just  like  the  cold-blooded  patriotism  of 
the  Bulgarian  to  conceal  all  news  of  the 
dead  and  wounded  from  their  friends  at 
home.  No  lists  were  published  except 
those  at  the  gates  of  the  hospitals  showing 
the   names    of   the  patients   within,   from 

143 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

whom  alone,  in  exceptional  cases,  one  might 
learn  of  a  friend  who  was  dead.  This 
policy  of  secrecy  may  be  brutal,  but  it  was 
admitted  to  be  useful.  The  idea  of  con- 
centrating all  attention  upon  national,  and 
not  personal,  ends  commended  itself  to  the 
high  patriotism  which  prevailed.  It  was 
agreed  that  if,  for  instance,  the  news  of 
losses  had  reached  the  ladies  working  in 
the  hospitals,  work  would  have  suffered, 
and  possibly  the  great  organisation  of 
relief  for  the  wounded,  depending  as  it  did 
on  the  efforts  of  the  entire  leisured  class, 
might  have  broken  down. 

The  quality  of  coolness,  among  the 
races  of  south-eastern  Europe,  is  quite 
peculiar  to  the  Bulgarian.  The  outward 
aspect  of  the  capital  was  as  frigidly  calm  as 
usual.  When,  after  many  weeks  of  war, 
contingents  of  volunteers  were  marching  to 
the  station,  there  was  no  sign  of  excitement 
or  desire  to  stimulate  their  spirits.  I  saw 
no  demonstration  in  the  streets  except  at 
the  office  where  volunteers  were  chosen  by 
lot.  There  were  large  numbers  disappointed, 

144 


WHY  THE  BULGARIANS  WON 

and    here    alone    I     heard    loud     voices 
raised. 

It  is  enough  for  a  Bulgarian  that  he 
knows  what  he  has  to  do  and  is  carrying  it 
out.  He  has  no  mannerism  ;  deep  feeling 
would  not  be  expressed  by  noise  ;  the  whole 
instinct  is  towards  reality.  If  a  Bulgarian 
utters  an  emotional  aphorism  he  does  it 
with  studied  calm.  If  any  sound  were 
appropriate  to  the  spirit  of  the  nation,  it 
is  the  deliberate  growl  of  distant  cannon. 
There  is  a  Bulgarian  maxim  which  runs — 
'  Do  not  blow  your  own  trumpet ;  if  you 
want  to  be  praised  it  is  better  to  let  the 
other  man  do  the  praising.' 

The  Bulgarian  mind,  again,  is  practical. 
It  is  no  doubt  still  debated,  among  Euro- 
pean military  experts,  whether  the  army 
succeeded  through  a  well-organised  trans- 
port or  in  spite  of  the  want  of  it.  The 
foreign  Red  Cross  contingents  at  the  front 
were  inclined  to  the  latter  view.  Judged 
by  English  or  by  German  standards,  the 
system,    or     want    of    system,    employed 

145  L 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

led  them  to  suppose  that  success  came 
from  '  muddling  through.'  They  found 
that  nothing  was  prepared  for  their 
arrival,  and  no  classification  of  the  wounded 
carried  out.  But  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  the  Bulgarian  mind  does  not 
include  some  elements  of  a  quality 
which  is  really  higher  than  statistical 
efficiency.  An  English  officer  once  dis- 
cussed the  problem  of  transport  with 
General  Savoff :  the  conversation  went  into 
detail,  and  finally  reached  the  question 
of  providing  forage  for  transport  oxen. 
Savoff  said,  '  We  leave  that  to  settle  itself  ; 
you  can  organise  too  much/  Here  you 
have  the  mind  which  not  only  foresees  the 
difficulties  and  provides  a  way  of  meeting 
them,  but  also  foresees  the  danger  of 
relying  upon  schemes  which  may  fail. 

An  incident  occurred  in  the  surgery  at 
Kirklisse  which  may  perhaps  illustrate  the 
same  cast  of  mind.  There  was  a  great 
crowd  of  wounded  men  endeavouring  to 
find  entrance  at  the  door,  impatient  for 
the  treatment   of  their  wounds.     At  one 

146 


WHY  THE  BULGARIANS  WON 

moment  the  crowd  burst  in,  and  some- 
thing approaching  a  little  riot  animated 
the  unfortunate  men,  whose  wounds  had 
smarted  uncleaned  for  a  week  past.  The 
dressers,  with  their  dishes  of  antiseptic  and 
piles  of  bandages,  seemed  in  danger  of 
violence,  when  a  revolver  suddenly  flashed  ; 
a  bullet  lodged  itself  in  the  wall ;  in  a 
moment  the  Bulgarian  doctor  had  effec- 
tively brought  the  little  rabble  to  its 
senses  and  restored  order.  It  was  a  sign 
either  of  barbarism  or  of  genius  for  manage- 
ment. The  end  was  attained  by  a  dis- 
regard of  rules  and  by  a  gift  of  adaptation, 
which  may  excusably  be  regarded  as 
indicating  the  managing  genius  which 
distinguishes  Europe  from  Asia.  At  all 
events  there  were  no  such  disastrous  errors 
in  the  commissariat  of  the  Bulgarian  army 
as  disgraced  the  Crimean  war. 

The  Balkan  successes  are  being  quoted 
in  support  of  high  military  training  on 
German  lines  for  the  rank  and  file.  This 
is  not  the  conclusion  of  Bulgarian  experts 
or  those  who  know  their  troops  best.     It 

147  L  2 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

might  equally  be  argued  that  the  Turks 
failed  because  of  German  training  ;  but  no 
conclusions  can  be  drawn  from  the  Turk, 
whose  mental  composition  is  unique.  It 
is  indeed  a  fact  that  the  Bulgarian  troops 
were  trained  for  active  service  by  hard 
work,  rough  life,  and  by  winter  manoeuvres ; 
but  the  importance  of  training  is  not  to  be 
deduced  from  the  Bulgarian  ranks,  whose 
time  of  service  is  less  than  that  of  many 
armies.  It  affects  rather  the  quality  of  the 
officers.  What  struck  an  observer  was 
their  combined  efficiency  as  professional 
men  and  as  civilians.  By  far  the  greater 
proportion  of  them  had  been  for  many 
years  without  army  training,  but  were 
employed  in  civil  life  as  professional  men 
or  farmers,  and  had  the  qualities  of  the 
business  mind,  added  to  a  background 
of  professional  military  knowledge  without 
the  stiffness   of  professionalism." 

As  to  the  men,  the  chief  factor  in  their 
efficiency  is  education.  Whereas  the  Turk- 
ish soldiers,  and  even  officers,  were  some- 
times without  any  education,  the  Bulgarian 

148 


WHY  THE  BULGARIANS  WON 

troops  could  read  and  write.  The  Bul- 
garian peasant  reads  political  news,  and 
few  can  be  found  who  are  not,  through  the 
press,  familiar  with  the  attitude  of  the 
Great  Powers  towards  Bulgaria,  and  of 
bodies  like  the  Balkan  Committee,  which 
concern  themselves  with  Balkan  affairs. 

Intelligence  is  one  of  the  qualities  which 
produced  the  Balkan  victory.  Its  con- 
spicuous illustration  is  in  the  policy  of  the 
army  leaders  in  concealing  their  plans  for 
so  many  years. 

Notable  among  these  feats  was  the 
successful  attempt  to  make  Turkey  believe 
that  only  two  considerable  armies  could  be 
brought  against  her  on  the  Thracian  side. 
It  was  consistently  announced  that  the 
Bulgarian  army,  which,  on  a  peace  footing, 
numbered  some  60,000,  could  be  increased 
in  war  to  300,000.  The  actual  number 
finally  mobilised  reached  430,000.  A  third 
army  was  thus  sprung  upon  the  enemy. 
It  was  collected  at  a  base  whose  locality 
was  carefully  concealed,  no  outposts  being 

149 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

brought  forward  to  cover  it.  The  frontier 
north  of  Kirklisse  was  guarded  only  by  a 
line  of  cavalry  scouts. 

The  second  trick  played  upon  the 
Turks  was  the  entire  neglect  to  make  a 
road  towards  Kirklisse  itself.  It  was 
supposed,  by  the  Turkish  staff,  that  no 
large  body  of  troops  could  move  and  take 
its  transport  through  rough  hills  and  bogs 
without  the  vestige  of  a  made  track.  All 
the  time  the  scheme  was  not  only  to  move 
an  army  through  a  six  days'  march  with- 
out a  road,  but  when  the  only  flat  route 
through  the  hills,  namely  the  road  to 
Adrianople,  was  blocked,  to  carry  the 
entire  transport,  outgoing  and  returning, 
of  300,000  men  by  a  route  hitherto  held 
to  be  impossible. 

In  the  result,  the  garrison  of  Kirklisse, 
not  only  inadequate,  but  taken  by  sur- 
prise, was  naturally  unable  to  keep  its 
nerve. 

We  may  perhaps  count  also  as  a  blind 
the  yearly  announcement  circulated  through 
the  European   press  that  war  was  likely 

150 


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WHY  THE  BULGARIANS  WON 

in  the  spring.  It  became  a  legend  that 
there  would  only  be  righting  when  the 
snows  melt,  and  year  by  year  when  summer 
came  the  world  breathed  more  freely. 
Now,  when  the  war  has  been  successfully 
fought  in  autumn,  it  has  been  pointed  out 
as  obvious  that  the  Balkan  native  can  stand 
cold  better  than  the  Asiatic,  and  that 
disease  would  be  far  more  prevalent  in 
summer  in  the  hot  plains  of  Thrace. 

Again,  it  was  held  by  the  most 
alarmist  observers  that  war  was  at  least 
unthinkable  while  the  present  Prime 
Minister,  Mr.  Gueshoff,  was  in  office.  It 
delights  the  Bulgarian  mind  to  think 
that  in  this  final  fashion  the  Oriental,  so 
inclined  to  subtlety  and  intrigue,  was 
hoodwinked. 

The  supreme  illustration  may  be 
drawn  from  the  case  of  the  Kirk- 
lisse  fortifications.  General  von  der  Goltz 
announced  in  his  reports  that  the  fortress 
would  not  yield  to  the  Bulgarians.  It 
could  only  be  taken,  even  by  Prussian 
troops,   in   six   months.     I   have   heard   a 

I5i 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

Bulgarian  general  compliment  the  German 
on  the  accuracy  of  his  remark.  It  was  a 
safe  one  to  make,  he  said,  because  no 
fortress  existed. 

There  are  indeed  on  the  north  side  of 
the  place  two  strong  forts,  but  there  was 
no  provision  against  investment  of  the 
town  whatever.  The  German  general's 
bluff  was  indeed  unique  in  its  sublimity. 
It  was  only  possible  because  in  Turkey  no 
means  existed  for  foreigners  to  ascertain 
the  facts.  Bulgarians  and  Greeks  alone 
were  likely  to  learn  (from  their  compatriots 
on  the  spot)  which  of  the  German  plans 
had  or  had  not  been  carried  out.  The 
Bulgarian  staff  would  be  suspected  by  the 
Turks  of  knowing  that  the  forts  had  never 
been  built,  and  of  an  inclination  therefore 
to  attack  the  place.  The  Bulgarians,  con- 
sequently, laid  themselves  out  to  make  the 
Turks  believe  that  they  too,  like  the  rest 
of  the  world,  held  Kirklisse  to  be  an 
impregnable  fortress.  They  took  advan- 
tage of  von  der  Goltz's  statement ;  they 
reported  on  it  as  if  they  believed  it,  and 

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WHY  THE  BULGARIANS  WON 

thus  in  the  end,  by  the  triple  means  of  an 
unexpected  road,  an  unexpected  army,  and 
an  unexpected  knowledge  of  the  absence 
of  forts,  they  took  the  place  unawares.  A 
panic  was  thus  created,  Turkish  confidence 
was  destroyed  ;  the  rest  of  the  war  was  a 
foregone  conclusion. 

Clearly,  however,  all  these  qualities 
would  have  gone  for  little  without  intense 
enthusiasm.  The  hatred  of  oppression  had 
been  for  many  centuries  in  the  very  blood. 
It  alone  inspired  the  readiness  for  death 
and  the  positive  thirst  for  getting  to  close 
quarters  which  broke  the  nerve  of  the 
finest  Turkish  troops,  and  won  the  war. 

In  more  prosaic  ways,  zeal  is  necessary 
for  success.  Transport  would  have  broken 
down  if  the  very  meanest  driver  of  an 
ox-waggon  had  not  had  his  heart  in  the 
cause,  and  the  army  would  have  found 
itself  without  bread.  I  saw  a  little  illus- 
tration of  this  spirit  at  one  of  the  British 
hospitals.  Late  at  night  a  convoy  of 
wounded  arrived.     It    was    impossible  to 

153 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

find  beds  for  all,  and  we  begged  for 
straw  from  the  drivers.  The  Bulgarian 
officer  attached  to  the  hospital  gave  them 
orders  to  this  effect,  which  would  have 
completely  protected  them  from  blame. 
But  nothing  would  induce  the  men  to  part 
with  forage  for  the  oxen  which  they  might, 
not  be  able  to  replace.  They  had  a  task  to 
do  more  essential  for  winning  the  war  than 
any  work  for  the  wounded,  and  they  kept 
in  view  the  larger  aim. 

Compare  this  motive  with  that  which 
would  have  animated  the  British  army  if 
war  had  not  been  averted  at  the  time  of 
the  Agadir  crisis  in  191 1.  There  would 
have  been  total  ignorance  of  the  real  cause, 
and  no  motive  force  except  the  unreal  and 
fleeting  animosity  engendered  by  a  section 
of  the  press.  Even  the  unrivalled  ardour 
of  the  Bulgarians  was  necessarily  dimin- 
ished after  some  weeks,  when  fatigue  and 
sickness  and  hunger  had  had  their  inevitable 
effect.  An  army  which  had  begun  the  war 
without  a  clear  issue  and  a  well-founded 
zeal  would,  where  the  level  of  intelligence 

154 


WHY  THE  BULGARIANS  WON 

was  high  enough  to  require  a  motive  other 
than  fanaticism  or  dull  obedience,  have 
marched  to  rapid  disaster.  Even  among 
the  Turks,  who  of  all  soldiers  in  the  world 
could  be  led  to  fight  without  an  under- 
standing of  the  issue,  the  want  of  zeal  was 
obviously  fatal. 

The  great  enemy  in  war  is  sickness, 
and  here  again  zeal  is  essential.  Sick- 
ness follows  from  fatigue  and  depriva- 
tion, which  can  be  met,  partly,  it  is  true, 
by  efficient  transport,  but  depends  largely 
on  the  psychological  condition  of  the  troops. 
This  fact  was  curiously  illustrated  by  the 
sickness  that  prevailed  in  the  Balkan  war. 
Cholera  is  supposed  to  follow  on  the  dirt 
of  insanitary  camps,  but  the  Turkish  troops 
fell  before  the  cholera  long  before  they 
reached  any  settled  camp  at  Chatalja  or 
elsewhere.  The  Bulgarian  army  following 
on  their  tracks  had  a  strange  experience. 
An  officer  of  the  general  staff  who  rode  in 
its  rear  told  me  that  after  leaving  the  open 
country  east  of  Lule  Burgas,  he  began  to 
notice    corpses     by     the     roadside.     Not 

155 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

having  heard  of  any  righting  in  this  part,  he 
was  puzzled,  and  feared  that  Bulgarian 
troops,  pressing  ahead  of  the  army,  had 
cut  down  Turkish  stragglers.  Riding  as 
he  was  with  a  press  correspondent,  he 
endeavoured  even  to  conceal  the  facts  by 
showing  the  European  a  different  route. 
But  the  corpses  increased  in  number,  and  at 
last  in  a  boggy  place  a  whole  convoy  of 
waggons  and  carriages  was  found  stuck 
fast.  In  them  and  around  them  were  no 
fewer  than  500  dead  men.  There  was  even 
a  motor-car  whose  occupants  sat  dead.  It 
then  for  the  first  time  suddenly  dawned 
upon  the  horrified  spectators  that  all  this 
death  was  the  work  of  disease.  What  is 
noticeable  for  our  purpose  is,  that  there 
had  been  nothing  of  the  usual  material 
causes  to  create  cholera  at  this  stage.  It 
was  the  work  of  fatigue  and  hunger  and 
fear.  The  Bulgarian  army  had  an  un- 
exampled stock  of  zeal,  but  even  theirs  was 
not  equal  to  the  strain. 

Combined  with  purpose  and  persistence, 
there  is  a  kind  of  idealism  in  the  Bulgarian 

156 


WHY  THE  BULGARIANS  WON 

composition  which  can  only  be  described 
as  faith.  For  long  years  the  rebel 
leaders  have  had  to  consider  whether 
violence  and  insurrection  would  pay. 
Viewing  the  horrible  results  of  insurrection 
in  Armenia  and  Macedonia,  I  have  often 
urged  on  them  that  the  life  and  happiness 
of  the  people  could  not  be  served  by 
resistance,  unless  liberation  by  war  was 
absolutely  assured  as  the  result  of  such 
tremendous  sacrifice.  Balancing  the  ad- 
vantages, this  argument  appeared  to  me 
unanswerable ;  but  I  never  found  Mace- 
donians who  even  appeared  to  understand 
the  point  of  view.  It  was  clear  to  them 
that  their  cause  was  just  ;  it  seemed  to 
them  certain  that  Europe,  living  in  wealth 
and  freedom,  must  sympathise  with  it. 
If  its  attention  was  called  to  the  truth  bv 
terrible  proofs  of  tyranny,  and  if  the 
oppressed  were  willing  to  pay  the  price, 
liberation  was  sure  to  follow.  The  idea 
seemed  to  rest  on  some  notion  of  a  moral 
law  controlling  affairs.  Such  a  mentality 
would  surely  be  fine  material  for  religion 

157 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

if  religion  in  its  current  and  institutional 
forms  were  adapted  to  the  real  needs  of 
men. 

The  quality  is  illustrated  in  the  ad- 
miration, which  almost  amounts  to  wor- 
ship, of  Mr.  Gladstone.  Bulgarians  will 
admit  that  Mr.  Gladstone's  efforts  for  them 
failed  entirely.  England  in  actual  fact  was 
the  worst  enemy  of  Bulgaria,  and  her 
Government  was  undeterred  by  Gladstone's 
eloquence  from  action  which  imposed  on 
two  million  people  a  fate  almost  unexampled 
in  cruelty.  But  the  evil  facts  are  for- 
gotten ;  the  great  desires  of  Gladstone,  and 
the  fact  that  he  called  the  attention  of  the 
world  to  the  nation's  cause,  are  remembered 
as  the  governing  consideration.  The  same 
quality  explains  the  extraordinary  interest 
taken  in  movements  abroad,  such  as  the 
advocacy  of  Balkan  liberation  in  England. 
It  makes  no  difference  to  the  Bulgarian 
mind  that  these  efforts  did  not  succeed. 
He  is  no  less  grateful  for  them  now  that 
his  own  sacrifice  and  courage  have  secured 
the  benefits  which  the  Great  Powers  would 

158 


WHY  THE  BULGARIANS  WON 

have  given  if  sufficiently  moved  by  public 
opinion. 

The  English  mind  would  apportion 
gratitude  according  to  results.  The  Bul- 
garian mind,  in  many  ways  similar,  is  less 
logical,  less  opportunist,  and  more  philo- 
sophical. 

In  1908  the  Young  Turkish  Revolution 
provided  a  chance  of  removing  the  miseries 
of  the  Macedonians.  It  was  the  Bulgarians 
who  would  gain  the  most,  and  for  a  time 
their  sufferings  ceased.  Other  races,  like 
the  Armenians,  did  in  the  next  two 
years  begin  to  escape  from  misery  through 
accommodating  themselves  to  the  new 
Government.  The  Bulgarians,  though  they 
saw  that  these  races  were  gaining  in 
various  ways,  and  though  the  other  methods 
of  stubborn  resistance  had  been  tried  by 
Armenia  and  by  themselves  with  results 
entirely  disastrous,  would  not  for  a  moment 
attempt  to  make  the  best  of  the  Young 
Turkish  Revolution.  It  was  in  their  eyes 
an  unideal  solution.  So  the  rebel  bands 
continued  to  act  ;  the  miserable  round  of 

159 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

resistance  on  a  small  scale  and  vengeance 
on  a  large  one  remained.  It  was  evident 
that  the  Great  Powers  had  abandoned 
reform  and  intended  to  give  the  Young 
Turks  a  chance.  At  the  same  time,  the 
Bulgarian  Government  had  definitely  de- 
cided against  making  war.  To  the  practical 
English  mind,  it  was  evident  that  in  these 
circumstances  fruitless  violence  increased 
the  sum  of  misfortune.  But  again  it  did 
not  seem  possible  for  the  rebel  leaders,  or 
even  for  the  people  of  free  Bulgaria,  to 
understand  the  argument  for  compromise. 
Bulgarians  have  never  temporised  with 
their  masters  and  oppressors ;  yet  for 
a  people  oppressed  and  physically  unable 
to  throw  off  the  yoke,  it  would  appear 
only  sensible  to  mitigate  its  weight. 
Greeks  and  Servians  have  in  various  ways 
endeavoured  to  make  life  less  intolerable. 
In  recent  years  this  has  been  reflected  in 
the  action  of  their  Governments.  They 
have  ostentatiously  stood  aloof  from  the 
revolutionary  policy  of  the  Bulgarian. 
They    refused    to    join    him    in    standing 

160 


WHY  THE  BULGARIANS  WON 

up  to  the  Turks,  and  their  policy  has  paid 
them  well.  Leading  Bulgarians  have  been 
systematically  impoverished  and  actually 
assassinated.  Favours  have  been  showered 
on  the  more  submissive  party  in  order  to 
withdraw  adherents  from  the  dangerous 
element.  Sustained  over  a  long  period,  the 
result  has  been  the  impoverishment  of 
the  Bulgarian  cause  and  Church,  so  that 
a  traveller  in  the  towns  of  Macedonia  or 
Thrace  would  find  the  wealthy  families 
with  whom  he  came  in  contact  entirely 
Greek.  He  would  get  the  impression  of 
a  Greek  country,  whereas  in  many  cases 
these  families  are  Greek  only  because 
it  has  been  impossible  for  a  Bulgarian 
above  the  humbler  ranks  to  exist. 

The  policy  of  the  stiff  neck  cost  the 
Bulgarian  race  all  the  influence  and 
wealth  that  it  might  have  won  by  supple- 
ness, and  its  position  in  the  world  seemed 
to  suffer.  For  centuries  no  reward  ap- 
peared to  follow.  To  others  a  rational 
submission  appeared  wiser  than  quixotic 
persistence.     But    the    reward    has    been 

161  M 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

earned  at  last.  In  despite  of  all  proba- 
bility, it  was  the  exercise  of  faith,  hardened 
by  ages  of  training,  which  has  in  our  day 
shown  itself  the  wise  policy.  An  un- 
rivalled power  of  endurance,  tried  in  the 
fire,  has  brought  recognition  in  the  end. 
The  undaunted  generations  of  the  past, 
if  they  viewed  the  present,  would  see  the 
travail  of  their  soul  and  be  satisfied. 

The  Balkan  campaign  has  made  con- 
verts to  war  in  general.  Its  merit  is  seen 
in  liberated  nations.  The  allies,  it  is 
held,  were  justified  in  fighting.  Of  course 
they  were  ;  but  should  the  sacrifice  have 
been  forced  upon  them  ?  The  Powers 
had  undertaken  to  grant  autonomy  ;  they 
nearly  did  so  in  1908.  They  can  solve 
every  menacing  question  of  bad  govern- 
ment (e.g.  in  Armenia)  by  means  of 
autonomy  or  division  of  spheres  among 
themselves  They  are  in  a  position  to 
impose  their  will  on  oppressive  govern- 
ments. It  is  their  function,  as  Sir  Edward 
Grey  suggested,   to  be  the  police  of  the 

162 


WHY  THE  BULGARIANS  WON 

world.  In  the  future,  therefore,  libera- 
tion should  not  require  the  sacrifices 
of  war. 

Again,  it  is  said,  this  war  will  be 
economic.  Its  cost — in  munitions,  wasted 
labour,  closed  factories,  destruction  of 
houses  and  crops,  consumption  of  flocks 
and  means  of  transport,  depreciated 
securities — will  bear  interest  in  commercial 
development.  But  as  with  liberation,  the 
commercial  development  of  the  world 
requires  only  a  degree  of  harmony  among 
the  Powers  which  is  perfectly  realisable. 
It  would  have  been  attained  in  the 
Balkans  by  Sir  Edward  Grey's  policy  of 
a  European  governor  under  the  Concert, 
if  the  Turkish  Revolution  had  not 
intervened. 

The  Balkan  war  is  the  most  economic, 
and,  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  combat- 
ants, the  most  just  that  can  be  named  ; 
but  the  Powers,  if  their  zeal  for  peace 
had  been  slightly  greater  and  more  posi- 
tive, would  have  achieved  the  liberation 
without  imposing  the  sacrifice.     Therefore, 

163 


WITH  THE  BULGARIAN  STAFF 

to  establish  the  war  as  a  proof  that  war  is  in 
any  way  beneficial,  it  is  necessary  to  show 
that  it  has  effects  (which  cannot  otherwise 
be  gained)  on  national  character  itself. 
We  hear  laudations  of  the  self-confidence, 
the  energy,  the  dignity  that  will  accrue 
to  the  allied  nations  from  their  feats  of 
arms.  We  heard  the  same  of  the  Germans, 
the  Japanese,  the  English  after  the  Boer 
war.  History  has  already  decided  what 
amount  of  reality  lay  in  the  argument. 
Its  advocates  are  at  least  not  anxious 
now  to  prove  it  in  the  case  of  the  English. 
Virile  qualities  were  equally  developed  in 
the  Japanese  before  the  cessation  of  their 
three  centuries  of  peace.  The  inspiring 
force  of  German  unity  would  have  come 
without  war.  Nor  can  it  be  urged  that 
small  nations  unfamed  for  conquest  (for 
instance  the  Norwegians)  are  deficient 
in  the  physical  and  mental  alertness 
attributed  to  fighting  races.  The  fear 
that  physical  courage  and  contempt  of 
death  are  only  maintained  by  war,  is 
natural ;    but    history    disproves  it.     On 

164 


WHY  THE  BULGARIANS  WON 

that  fear,  so  mistakenly  encouraged  by 
the  recent  war,  is  based  the  widespread 
and  honest  view  that  peace  has  its  dangers  ; 
and  thus  in  critical  moments  the  forces 
for  peace,  which  might  have  defeated  the 
interested  factors  making  for  war,  are 
paralysed,  and  the  die  is  cast  for  one 
more  war. 

For  this  reason  the  Balkan  war  needs 
close  scrutiny.  The  Bulgarian,  according 
to  the  militarists'  theory,  ought  to  be 
feeble  for  want  of  fighting.  He  had 
fought  no  war  worth  mentioning  ;  he  had 
not  even  won  his  own  freedom,  like  the 
Greek  and  Serb  and  Montenegrin ;  he 
was  a  parasitic  protege  of  his  Russian 
patrons.  Yet  in  spite  of  all  he  developed 
a  character  as  energetic,  as  virile,  as 
resourceful,  and  as  brave  as  any  in  the 
world. 

THE   END 


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